
Book 

PRESENTED BY 



LETTERS 



MOTHER 



BIRTH OF A CHILD, 



In which are set forth the feelings most proper on that occasion ;- 

the private dedication — the public baptism — and 

future training of the child — 



WITH AN APPENDIX, 



In which the leading Views of the baptismal service are con- 
sidered, and it is shown how the same may be used 
without scruple and unto edification. 



BY THE 

RIGHT REV. WILLIAM MEADE, D. D. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 9 GEORGE ST. 

1849. 



^t 



MR. SfAUSJN, 



PREFACE. 

If it be asked, why these letters are addressed to a 
Mother rather than to a Father, or to both ; it is 
answered, because, in point of fact, and in a great 
measure of necessity, the early religious education of 
children devolves chiefly on the mother. 

If it be asked, why the child is supposed to be a 
son rather than a daughter ; it is answered, because 
sons are necessarily exposed to much greater 
danger and temptation. 

If it be asked, why a first-born is selected rather 
than any other ; it is answered, because the feelings 
of mothers are apt to be more holy and tender on 
the birth of a first-born, and it is hoped that by a 
reference to that occasion the same feelings will be 
reawakened in those who may read the following 
pages on the birth of any subsequent child. 



LETTERS TO A MOTHER OX THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 



My dear Friend : 

A few days since, and you became a mother — 
the joyful mother of your first born, over whom 
you are even now perhaps, hanging with such 
feelings as none but a mother's heart can know. 
God has fulfilled to you a most gracious promise 
made to poor woman, and saved you in the hour 
of great fear and need. Now, if ever, your heart is 
overwhelmed at the thought of your deliverance ; and 
ascribing it altogether to the divine goodness, you 
are ready to say in the language of thanksgiving 
which the Church in her service for this occasion 
has put into your lips, " I am well pleased that 
the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer. What 
shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits be- 
stowed upon me ?" In such a frame of mind you 
will, lam sure, permit a friend who wishes to lead 
your thoughts towards the right improvement of so 
interesting an event, to take advantage of your pre- 
1* 



6 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

sent feelings, and address you a few words of 
counsel. 

At your side, or in your arms, there lies a poor 
helpless form, scarce alive, and which would soon 
perish but for a mother's care. Within that frail 
form however, there is a deathless soul, and the 
being on whom you now look so tenderly is des- 
tined to be one day and for ever, either an angel of 
Heaven or a lost spirit. Long indeed before it 
enters on the unchangeable state, it may be either 
a blessing or a curse to its parents, may itself re- 
joice in existence, as a great good, or else in bitter- 
ness exclaim, " Let the day perish wherein I was 
born." 

Think me not unkind in suggesting the latter as 
a possibility. It is that such sorrow may never be 
yours or your child's, that I warn you of the dan- 
ger. I am the more moved to this because I am 
told, that your first born is a son, and from much 
and painful observation I know too well the greater 
dangers to which sons are exposed in this evil 
world. Amongst the Jewish mothers it is true, 
the custom was to announce it with joy when a 
man-child was born into the world, even as now 
the birth of some royal heir is announced, for each 
one hoped that perchance she might be the mother 
of the promised Messiah. How many were dis- 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 7 

appointed, since one only could be the favoured 
mother; and many a Christian mother has been 
disappointed in the hope, that the child whom she 
has borne and nursed would be a son of God, 
though not of course that son for whom the Jewish 
mother looked. Alas ! how many have exclaimed 
with joy, as did the mother of our race at the birth 
of her first-born, " I have gotten a man from the 
Lord," who like that mother have lived only to be- 
hold him a wretched outcast. God forbid that this 
worst of evils should be your unhappy lot. Rather 
may the very opposite to it be your portion. Who 
knows but that in answer to faithful prayer, and by 
God's blessing on diligent endeavor, godly disci- 
pline, and pious instruction, your child may one 
day be not only a follower but a minister of Christ, 
a man of God, a preacher of the glorious gospel. 
Who knows but the blessing may be perpetuated, 
and that a long line of faithful and successful 
ministers of Christ, may descend through him to 
the end of the world, who shall have thousands 
and hundreds of thousands to present to the great 
Shepherd and Bishop of souls as their joy and crown 
of rejoicing. Cherish such high and holy thoughts, 
my dear friend, and let them animate you to zeal 
and perseverance in the use of all the means which 



8 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

God has appointed to parents for training up their 
children in his service, and for his glory. In order 
to effect the object aimed at, I would endeavor to 
impress most deeply on your mind the conviction 
of the great agency which God has assigned to 
parents in this work. As to their bodies, it is well 
known that of all animals born into this world, there 
is none so weak and helpless at the first as little 
children, none which need so much and such long 
nursing care. Without it they would perish at the 
birth or soon after. Not less dependent are they 
on others for the culture of their immortal souls, 
which, though they cannot die, in the lesser sense 
of that word, may in its greater — may die that death 
which never dies. Left to themselves, what do 
children know of God and Heaven ? The same 
parents who minister to their frail bodies, are also 
appointed to minister to their never-dying souls. 
So hath God appointed, and it is meet it should be 
so. Seeing they receive their evil natures by birth, 
and inheritance from us, it is wise and good in God 
to make us in some measure the instruments of 
averting the dreadful effects thereof. Beside the 
promptings of natural affection urging us to desire 
and seek all good for our children, how strongly 
must we be moved thereto when seeing in them, 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. » 

almost from their birth, the exhibitions of those very 
sinful propensities which we feel in ourselves, and 
they received from us, and soon see in us, copying 
the same. "What must have been the bitterness 
and remorse of our first parents, at beholding in the 
fearful crime of their first born, one of the fruits of 
their own sin against God ; and what a motive must 
it have furnished for earnest prayer and faithful 
endeavour in behalf of the rest, that they might 
be as righteous Abel, and blessed Enoch, not as 
wretched Cain. It is most carefully to be observed, 
however, that parents are not the instruments of 
good to their children, in the same way that they 
are of evil. Holiness is not transmitted at birth as 
sin is. We must be born again of God, in order to 
avoid the evils of cur first birth. God has ap- 
pointed means for this new birth of the soul, which 
means are chiefly in the hands of parents during 
the tender years of their children. 

It ought to be a source of unspeakable joy to you 
to know, not only that in heaven there has been 
devised a merciful plan for the deliverance of your 
child from the evils of the fall, and that the same 
has been executed on earth in the death of Christ, 
but that you enjoy such peculiar advantages for 
making this great redemption available to your 
child. What a blessing must you regard it that 



10 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

your child is born in a christian land, and in one 
sense in the bosom of the christian Church, and not 
in a heathen country, and amidst the abominable 
idolatries thereof. How happy were Jewish 
parents at the thought of their children being the 
children of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
Jacob, the children of promise, that they were 
born in the promised land, where was the temple 
and the sabbaths and the oracles, the covenants and 
ordinances of the living God. But above all, what 
a subject of glorying it was to them, that the Mes- 
siah was to be born in their land, and of their na- 
tion, and the Holy Ghost to come down at his ap- 
pearing in all His fulness upon their posterity. 
Nay more, it was a privilege to be born in or near 
that holy land, though not of Jewish parents, for 
they could thus hear much of the true God. The 
children of strangers might be entered into cove- 
nant with Jehovah, and often were, being taken by 
some good Samaritan and presented to the Lord, 
and then trained for his service. It was good to be 
about the city and temple of God, though only 
proselytes of the gate, and worshippers in the court 
of the Gentiles, the outer apartment of the house of 
God. Happy the people that were even in such a 
case as this. But now if there was such advan- 
tage to the Jew, if it might be said of his privileges 



OX THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 11 

by comparison with those of the Gentiles, " Much 
every way, chiefly because unto them were com- 
mitted the oracles of God," though those oracles 
were yet imperfect, what should be your rejoicing 
that your child is born in a Christian land ; a land 
of bibles, of sabbaths, and temples, and preachers, 
and ordinances of Heaven's appointment, and of 
every assistance you can need in training him for 
glory. Especially thankful ought you to be that 
he is born of believing parents, and not of scoffing 
and infidel ones, as some children are, even in this 
land. St. Paul assures us, that if only one of 
the parents believe, the child is holy — that is, a 
child of the promise, privileged to be received 
among God's children, so far as to be entered into 
his visible church, and sealed with his seal, and 
brought up amongst his people ; but it is your hap- 
piness to have in the father of your child, one who 
sympathizes with you in all your feelings and views, 
and will co-operate with you according to his ability 
and opportunity. How different your lot and that 
of your child in this respect, from the lot of too 
many mothers and sons. If the child, who has 
one believing parent is holy, so as to be entered 
into the school of Christ, what blessing may not be 
expected by those who strive together with one 
heart, in prayers and efforts for their children's 



12 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

salvation. If for a moment you doubt God's tender 
love to your child, and its interest in the blessings 
of the Gospel, remember not only that the blessing 
to Abraham and his posterity was renewed on the 
day of Pentecost, when it was said, " The promise 
is to you and your children," but our Lord had 
before, in the most touching manner, declared his 
love to little children, by rebuking the unbelief of 
some, by taking them in his arms, blessing them, 
and saying, that " of such is the kingdom of Hea- 
ven." What an encouragement to all Christian 
parents to bring them to him for a blessing. He is 
not now present with us in body as once he was, 
but he is with us in spirit ; we can take our chil- 
dren to him in our prayers, and he will receive 
them into the arms of his love, and will bless them 
as he did those on earth. How, and when, that 
blessing is bestowed so as to be used, we may be 
unable to see and know ; neither did those parents 
know, whose children were received by him while 
on earth ; but that there was a blessing, however 
these very children may have frustrated its effect, 
who can doubt. 

It is not for us to know, since we cannot look 
into the hearts of children, and God hath not told 
us, how soon the blessed Spirit may begin a gra- 
cious operation therein ; but it is ours to pray that 



ON' THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 13 

God would bless them with all the spiritual bless- 
ings of which they are capable, without undertaking 
to dictate the time or manner of its operation. We 
should be like parents, who as to the good things of 
this life, are seeking to lay up in store for their chil- 
dren long before the time when they can use them. 
The times and seasons are in God's hands, and we 
have need of patience for ourselves and children, 
after we have done the will of God, to inherit the 
blessing. Many prayers have doubtless been 
offered up by pious parents, and registered in 
Heaven, which have been answered in rich mer- 
cies on their children, long after the time of their 
ascent. Though I doubt not, my dear friend, that 
you have before and since its birth, been wrestling 
with God for a blessing on your child, let me en- 
treat you to wait still upon him, praying as if each 
prayer might be your last ; praying that the Holy 
Spirit may even now begin its work, if such be 
God's method, and that it may hereafter be vouch- 
safed in such measure as shall be needed. Plead 
all the promises of God in his behalf, especially 
that the atoning blood of Christ may be applied to 
his soul. Say unto God that here is a creature 
whom he hath made, and beseech him to be merci- 
ful to the work of his own hands. Make an entire 
2 



14 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

surrender of him to Gcd, and resolve to regard him 
and train him henceforth as the property of God. 
In view of the evil world into which you have 
brought him, and trembling for his fate, say unto 
God, who is sufficient for this work, and pray for 
divine assistance with all earnestness. The God 
who hath given you this sacred deposit, — this rich 
talent, — will not withhold the needed aid for its im- 
provement. If there be one prayer which we offer 
for others, one effort we make for others, more 
likely to secure the divine favour than any other, 
surely it must be the prayer of a pious parent for 
the rescue of a child from eternal misery. As to 
God's special care of a child thus dedicated to him, 
let me use the language of another, and say " How- 
ever unconscious of God's regards, we know that 
in Christ, he regards the infant with the deepest 
solicitude. The intense interest and sacred delight 
with which the loving mother watches her first-born, 
catches the first gleam of its opening intelligence 
and moral sensibility, and seeks to nurse the young 
spirit up for sweet and blessed intercourse with 
herself, — these are but faint and feeble things com- 
pared with that still more intense interest, that still 
more sacred delight with which a God of love 
watches the infancy of every human being, sees its 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 15 

nature unfold, and seeks to draw its young affec- 
tions to himself."* 

And now, my friend, trusting that you are in the 
state of mind most suitable for prayer, I offer you 
the following as a guide and help, though it may 
be that an overflowing heart shall suggest to you 
more and better words. 

Yours, truly, in the Lord. 



PRATER. 

Oh, my God, thou hast saved my life from de- 
struction in the hour of danger and of need. Thou 
hast enabled me to give life to this immortal being ; 
thou hast kept it from perishing at its birth ; to whom 
shall I go with thanksgiving for this deliverance, 
and with vows and offerings, but to thee. Oh for 
grace to dedicate myself and child to thee and thy 
service, henceforth and for ever more. Lord we 
are thine, the work of thine hands ; thou madest 
us, not we ourselves. Thine we are by the re- 
deeming blood of Christ also, and oh, may we be 
thine by the sanctifying influeuces of the Holy 

* Dr. Stone. 



16 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

Ghost. Oh God, what a fearful talent hast thou 
intrusted to my care in this precious infant. How 
I tremble to receive it. Is it to be my joy or my 
grief, an honour or a shame to its parents, its ex- 
istence a curse or a blessing to itself ? When I 
remember that it is my own child, conceived in 
sin, such as I ever feel in my own sinful nature, 
and now born into a wicked world, I am seized with 
dread for its future condition. To thee I look for 
relief and help. Oh God, nothing is impossible to 
thee. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings 
thou canst ordain praise. Thou canst write the 
name of my child in Heaven. Blessed Jesus, thou 
who didst take little children into thine arms and 
bless them, bless mine, even mine, now and for 
ever, washing his soul from sin in thy atoning 
blood. I ask not for any thing here below. I 
seek for it the kingdom of heaven and its righteous- 
ness, and believe that all other things which are 
needful will be added. The blessing I intreat, 
Oh God ! is the salvation of his immortal soul. 
Grant me this, Oh God ! and I am content. Never, 
while I live, may I otherwise feel than I now do. 
Oh God ! if my child is to live only to disappoint the 
hopes which I now cherish, then in mercy take 
him from the evil to come, now while I am per- 



OX THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 17 

mitted to hope that thou wilt receive him to thyself, 
among those little ones, of which is the kingdom of 
Heaven. I ask all for myself and child, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, through whom alone there is 
hope. Amen ! 



LETTER II. 

My Dear Friend : 

In my first letter I addressed you when lying in 
that chamber where your child was born, where 
God had vouchsafed you a gracious deliverance. 
You were there on your bed, carrying on a solemn 
transaction with Heaven in behalf of your child, 
with your heart entering him into covenant with 
God, pleading the promises to the children of be- 
lievers, invoking the blood of Jesus, and the influ- 
ence of the Spirit. Thus did you address that God 
who is a Spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit 
and in truth, who bids us pray to him in secret, and 
promises to reward us openly. But is this all that 
duty requires ? God is not only the God of all the 
families of earth, blessing each house of the righteous, 
accepting the prayer that is offered up " secretly 
among the faithful," but he is the God of that great 



18 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

family the Church, which was purchased by the 
blood of his Son, and he calls on us to worship him 
" in the great congregation." He requires that we 
not merely believe on him with our hearts, but 
confess him with our mouths. And is it not his 
will that parents with their little ones should appear 
before him ? Is there no thanksgiving due to God 
before the congregation for this child, no public 
dedication of him required, no prayer of the faithful 
needed in his behalf, and in yours also, that you 
may perform your part well ? 

God, we trust, has already received this child by 
the word of promise, and in answer to your earnest 
prayer. In his blessed revelation he has given you 
assurances of his tender love to little ones, and you 
have in private pleaded these, and put your child 
into the arms of his love. So doubtless did these 
Jewish mothers, who nevertheless afterwards carried 
.their children to Christ when upon earth, and 
begged him to take them into his very human arms 
and bless them again. And is there no way of 
doing this now, or making some near approach to 
it ? May we not take them into his temple, and to 
his minister and people, who are a part of his mys- 
■ tical body, and beg them to receive him into their 
arms, and present him to Christ by faithful prayer ? 
And how proper is it that on such an occasion, 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 19 

parents should publicly renew the dedication made 
in private, and declare their determination before 
the Church to bring up the child for Gcd, and call 
on all present, not only to hear their vows, but to 
unite in the holy act and ceremony. Nor only this, 
but as the contracts or covenants between man and 
man, besides being uttered or written down in 
words which bind to the performance usually have 
hand-writing and seal put to them for greater assur- 
ance, so also does God not merely give us an instru- 
ment of writing, his blessed word, in which he 
solemnly and repeatedly swears, saying verily, 
verily, but also adds a seal to the same, that is, some 
expressive token by which to give us greater assur- 
ance. That seal is put on our bodies, and by sub- 
mitting to it we give this outward assent to the 
same, as by believing the words of the instrument 
we have previously assented with our hearts to it. 
Let us see what this seal is. Need I remind you 
of God's command to his servant Abraham, that a 
sign or seal should be put upon himself and house- 
hold — that of circumcision. This was many years 
after Gcd had entered into covenant with him by 
many promises and favors, and he had entered into 
covenant with God by faith and obedience, and 
been accepted, being called the friend of Gcd. 
Nevertheless it pleased God to add another assurance 



20 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

of his protection and love, in a special mark by 
which Abraham and his posterity might be known 
of all men as God's covenant people, and hy the 
perpetual observance of which, they might show 
their allegiance to him, and secure his favour. I 
need not say how often this was enjoined, what 
punishments threatened to its neglect, and what 
blessings promised to its right use and improvement. 
It never was intermitted by any considerable 
numbers, except during the passage through the 
wilderness, when it was most difficult of perform- 
ance, and not so necessary as a distinguishing mark 
of God's people, who were then literally pilgrims 
and sojourners, and distinguished in so many other 
ways. Nor does the neglect seem to have provoked 
God's displeasure, but only to have produced a 
special command for the renewal of the rite so soon 
as they entered the promised land. So important 
was it deemed in the regulations of God's Church, 
that our Lord himself submitted to it, in order to 
fulfil all righteousness, as he afterwards did to bap- 
tism, when he was publicly acknowledged to be 
the Son of God. The pious Jew hasted, according 
to the command, to have his child sealed as the 
child of God, and to make this public confession for 
him. It was considered by some to be the very 
first act performed for the child according to an 



ON THE EIRTH OF A CHILD. 21 

opinion held, that it was not a perfect child until the 
eighth day. At the very birth of the child then 
the Jewish parent made him to become a debtor in 
this public way, to do the whole law, and God made 
himself a debtor to fulfil all his blessed promises to 
the children of his people. And if Abraham not 
onl}- believed with his heart, but thus openly con- 
fessed Jehovah, and was required to do the same 
for his household, shall we for a moment suppose, 
when baptism was substituted for the Jewish rite, 
and was enjoined on parents, that their children 
were excluded, and when our Lord so emphatically 
said, « Suffer little children to come unto me, for of 
such is the Kingdom of God." It is then your 
privilege and duty to do something more than the 
private dedication of your child, and to have some 
other assurance of God's love to it, than even the 
blessed words on record. You may take it unto 
the house of God, and ask the people of God to bear 
it on their hearts to the throne of grace, and the 
minister of God to put God's own sign and seal upon 
it. Pious Christians have ever delighted and 
hasted to do this. Some mothers have not even 
waited for strength to bear the little infant, light as 
the burthen is, in their own arms to the house of 
God, but have sent it by other, while they have 
continued to wrestle with God at home for the 



22 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

blessing. They have not been satisfied merely to 
have their children born within the bounds of the 
visible Church, though that is a great privilege, and 
that they have believing parents who will train them 
up for Heaven, which is a still greater blessing, 
but according to God's will and gracious permission, 
they wish them to be formally received by and into 
the congregation of Christ's flock, thus grafting 
them into Christ's body — that is his Church — that 
they may grow up into Christ himself. If such be 
God's will, then as an act of obedience it must be 
right, and a blessing belongs to it. What though 
the benefit of Christ's death, who died for all, may 
have been the child's before, by promise ; what 
though in answer to the prayer of faith, through the 
intercession of Christ, God may have blessed it 
before and granted the Holy Spirit for its use, as 
soon as it is capable of it ; has God but one blessing 
to bestow, but one grant of the Spirit to make, but 
one assurance of pardon to give ? Is this our God 
who supplies us day by day with food, renews his 
earthly blessings each hour, each moment, and has 
told us, that he is more willing to give us his Holy 
Spirit, whose office is to renew day by day, than 
earthly parents to give good things to their children. 
Our Lord himself, though he had the Spirit pour- 
ed out upon him long before, yet received it again 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 23 

and most manifestly at his baptism. There may be 
a special blessing and measure of the Spirit assigned 
to this act, if rightly done, though not tied to the 
very moment of baptism. If fervent prayers be 
now offered up, who shall say they may not be the 
effectual prayers of the righteous, which avail to 
secure a blessing for the child, though at some 
future day, just as many a labour of man produces its 
fruit at some distant period. 

"Can the child of so many tears perish," was 
the answer of a venerable bishop to a mother whose 
child had been baptized, and educated for Christ, 
but who was then an infidel, and the mother's heart 
ready to break. But that infidel became a faithful 
minister of Christ, none other than the great 
Augustine. It is thus that God may make this 
ordinance lvork together with attendant means for 
the spiritual good of one who for a long time has 
utterly neglected and dishonored it. If it be said 
that we make too much of a mere ceremony, only 
once observed, and administered to an unconscious 
infant, that there is no analogous case, nothing sus- 
taining the claim put in for it in the word and dis- 
pensations of God ; we answer, that it is not a mere 
ceremony, that the use of water is only one part, 
and the far inferior part. Holy baptism is adminis- 
tered with faithful prayer, and the word, in the name 



24 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Ail 
the waters of the ocean were useless without these. 
And though the outward form of water be used 
but once, the prayer and word are often to be re- 
newed by the parent, and the child; thus improving 
the baptism, as the laying on of hands upon the 
confirmed, and the ordained is done but once, while 
the vows and prayers are often to be renewed, and 
the obligations always fulfilling. If it be asked, 
where is the difference as to religious advantages 
and God's favor between children thus baptized, and 
others unbaptized who live in the same society, 
have the same scriptures for their instruction, and 
the same sabbaths, temples, and ministers ; we 
answer, that though God may, and, doubtless, does 
dispense his Spirit when this ordinance is neglected, 
either through ignorance or the prejudice of educa- 
tion, yet there may be much difference in many 
cases between the two. This neglect of their bap- 
tismal dedication, may only be the first of a series 
of neglects, each one leading to the next, whose 
combined effect may contribute much to the perdi- 
tion of the child ; while the right performance of it 
may be the first of a series of pious acts, each 
facilitating and ensuring the next, which may con- 
tribute much to the salvation of the child. We have 
little doubt of the truth of what is affirmed by those 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 25 

who have made particular observation and inquiry, 
that it will be found as a general rule, that far more 
in proportion to the number, in any particular region, 
of those who have been baptized in infancy, have 
become pious in after life, than of those whose bap- 
tism has been neglected. It is most reasonable that 
it should be so. Has God established a Church on 
earth, and gathered his children into a fellowship, 
and placed them in a school, with laws and ordi- 
nances and officers, and has he appointed a public 
form of admission into it ; and shall we still say, 
that from association with God's people, and the 
use of their books, and temples, and sabbaths, we 
can -derive all the substantial benefit to ourselves, 
without being introduced regularly and fully into 
their body by a particular mode, even though that 
mode be of God's appointment ? Is not this tempting 
God ? Is not this too like the conduct of certain 
infidels and moralists, who boast of their just notions 
of God and of morals, and compare their outwan 
conduct with that of many Christians, without as> 
cribing as they ought, what is correct in their 
system and practice, to the influence of that very 
religion which they reject, and the lives of those 
very persons whom they regard as mistaken in their 
faith. Infidels and moralists should be carried 
beyond the bounds of Christianity, in order to test 
3 



26 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

their system, and see what would be the lives of its 
advocates ; and so those who make light of connec- 
tion with God's Church, in the way of his ordaining, 
should just suppose that Church to be dissolved, its 
ordinances, its ministers, its discipline, all dispensed 
with, and each one left, even with the Bible in his 
hand, to work out his own salvation as seems best to 
himself. 

Now my dear friend, individuals who would in 
their own case, or in the case of their children, dis- 
pense with any of the advantages of God's Church, 
are just so far endeavoring to set aside the Church 
of God in its visible organization, and for thus 
mutilating it in its outward form, who can say how 
far God in displeasure, may withhold a measure of 
his inward grace. Such a risk the affectionate 
mother whom I address, will not run in regard to 
the child whom God has placed under her care, 
and for whose benefit he has established a well 
ordered school upon earth. And now let me invite 
you again to pray that God would grant the pro- 
mised Spirit to your child, for though every gift 
and operation of the Spirit does not amount to the 
new birth unto righteousness, yet there may be, 
long ere we can certainly know it, the beginnings 
of grace, a disposition to holiness, the effect of God's 
invisible Spirit on the hearts of our children, and 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 27 

which may incline them to the reception of that 
word, of which at an early age they shall be born 
again, and by which they shall grow up to the 
stature of the fulness of a perfect man in Christ 
Jesus. 



PRAYER. 

O my God, I have already blessed thee for the 
sweet assurances of thy word that children are 
dear to thee, that of such is thy kingdom. But for 
these blessed words of our dear Saviour, how could 
we know what would become of them when they 
are taken away in their infancy. I bless thee also 
that thou hast confirmed our hope, by establishing 
thy kingdom upon earth and receiving them into 
it, as the outer court of Heaven, where, as they 
grow in age, they may be prepared for the inner 
sanctuary, even Heaven itself. I rejoice in this 
privilege, and hasten to bear my child into the midst 
of the assembly of the saints upon earth, that thou 
mayest there publicly receive it by the hands and 
hearts of thy minister and people. I bless thee that 
thou hast appointed the holy ordinance of baptism, 
with which to seal all the promises of thy word to 



28 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

our children, and by which to unite us to thy people 
upon earth in an outward and visible -fellowship, 
and to be a means of uniting us to thyself through 
prayer and faith. O God, I would renew the dedi- 
cation of my child to thee, and openly confess 
Christ in his name, seeking first the kingdom of 
Heaven, and trusting that all else which is needful 
shall be added unto him. O God, I would hasten 
to have the mark of thy children put on my child, 
and not incur thy displeasure, as Moses did, by any 
unnecessary delay. I will perform this duty as an 
act of obedience to thee, and not with any supersti- 
tious reverence for an outward ceremony, expecting 
salvation from it. I pray thee to baptize the soul 
of my child, with thy Holy Spirit, at whatsoever 
time and by whatsoever means thou shalt choose, 
and to give me grace to perform all my engage- 
ments in his behalf, regarding his baptism as only 
one of the many means thou hast commanded me 
to use for the salvation of his immortal soul. I ask 
all in the name of Him through whom alone I hope 
for any blessing on myself and child. Amen. 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 29 



LETTER III. 

My dear Friend: 

You are now resolved, at an early period, to pre- 
sent your child to the Lord in his holy temple. 
The minister and congregation are always ready to 
receive him into their fellowship, and unite with 
you in offering him up to the Lord. But this sol- 
emn act must be performed with appropriate words 
and vows. Though it might suffice for its validity 
merely to repeat the words Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, over the child, and baptize it with water in 
these blessed names, yet more than this is neces- 
sary to make the ceremony as edifying as may be. 
God hath reposed such trust in his Church as to 
believe that without his appointment of a full ser- 
vice, she would do it well, making the baptism a 
good confession, and requiring the answer of a good 
conscience from those coming to it, or bringing chil- 
dren to it. So far from making it the mere cere- 
mony of a moment, she will not permit even infants 
to be baptized, without setting forth before all pre- 
sent, the whole substance of our religion in a ser- 
vice which should often be reviewed in after life. 

As the early converts to Christianity, were not 
baptized without first renouncing all that was false 



30 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

in their previous belief, and declaring their faith in 
Christ and promising obedience ; so from the first, 
infants have been required to promise the same 
through others, who are bound to see that they be 
instructed in the Christian system, and brought up 
to renounce all that is contrary to it in faith and 
practice. 

The Church seeks to adopt the best method, and 
get the best security she can to prevent the chil- 
dren from dishonoring her and their great Head. 
The substance of her service, and much of its form, 
has come down to us from early times. It becomes 
you to examine it carefully, and pray over it fer- 
vently, that so you may use it understands giy and 
heartily. On your right understanding of its de- 
sign, and earnest desire that your child may be all 
that is asked and promised for him, and on your 
earnest prayer to God for his grace, much may de- 
pend. To go through such a form without under- 
standing and feeling it, must be offensive to God, 
You ought, therefore, first to go through the vows, 
as if you were making them for yourself, or renew- 
ing them again for your own benefit, and thus try 
whether you will make them aright for your child. 
If you have not the faith, the penitence, the desires, 
the determination, which you are about to profess 
for your child, how can you sincerely speak for 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 31 

him ; how can you really desire and determine to 
seek these things for him, and thus be one of the 
persons whom the Church calls for, and to whom 
she entrusts the religious education of her young 
members ? If you cannot, then in consistency you 
must seek some others to make these answers, and 
some who can do it with their whole heart, and 
on whom must devolve the whole transaction. But 
supposing that you have all proper feeling and de- 
sires, it becomes you to observe one striking feature 
in the service to be used. You will perceive that 
now, as at first, and at all times, the Church re- 
quires those presenting children, to speak positively 
in their name, and, as with their voice, promising 
faith, penitence, and obedience, and asking bap- 
tism on the strength of this promise. 

Whatever other reasons there be for such a 
strong figure of speech, such a supposition unsus- 
tained by fact, since the children cannot speak or 
will, surely she must have designed thus to im- 
press on sponsors, the immense influence which they 
may possess over the young, and which may jus- 
tify such assurances as to their future belief and 
conduct. 

Some have proposed to change the form, and 
simply require a promise from the sponsors to use 
their utmost endeavors to make these children what 



32 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

they should he. This duty the Church has set 
forth in the latter part of the service, in addition to 
solemn promises in the child's name. Whatever 
be the form of doing it, the Church has a right to 
require a strong promise from sponsors. If God 
has given them power for good over the hearts and 
minds of children, he has a right to require its ex- 
ercise and will certainly do it, and the Church has 
a right to make the promise of it a part of her bap- 
tismal service. 

The vow thus understood as binding the sponsor 
to the full exertion of his influence, and as being 
made by the child in his own name, though w r ith 
the voice of another, has the double effect of mov- 
ing the sponsors to the more faithful performance 
of their parts and duties, and of connecting the 
baptism with the mind of the child at a future 
period, thus, as it were, extending the holy cere- 
mony, and giving time for the union of the sign 
and thing signified, and making it a baptism not of 
water only, but also of the Spirit. 

But so anxious is the Church to avail herself of 
every assistance which can be obtained, in this im- 
portant duty of religious education, that she is not 
walling to rely on either the natural or spiritual af- 
fection of parents to do all that is required, in order 
to the well-being of her young members, but in 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 33 

every age, whether Jewish or Christian, has called 
in the aid of others, whom she names God-Fathers 
and God-Mothers. I need not say that these should 
have the hearts of Christian Fathers and Mothers, 
and who can be trusted with such a duty. Per- 
haps you may, as is the case with some others, 
have doubts as to the expediency of this, from see- 
ing how seldom it is rightly used, and may not 
have taken pains to look out for some suitable per- 
sons to unite with you on the occasion which is at 
hand. Let me therefore present the following view 
of it for your consideration. By the constitution of 
society, as God himself hath appointed, we are all 
members one of another, so that we must exert 
some influence either for good or ill, over each 
other. It is desirable to adopt the most effectual 
measures for increasing good influences, and dimi- 
nishing evil ones. One of the many difficulties 
which parents meet with in the right education of 
their children, is the misconduct of other parents 
in the management of their children, either spoiling 
them by indulgence, or by evil example and false 
principles leading them astray. Children mingling 
together will be corrupted by evil communication. 
It sometimes happens that the nearest relations and 
most intimate friends are thus, however unde- 
signedly, the greatest hinderers of those parents 



34 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

who are desirous to do their duty. It has been 
often wished that societies were formed among 
parents of similar views, in order to encourage and 
strengthen each other in the right government of 
the young, instead of permitting the more weak and 
negligent to set the example as to manners and 
habits. Doubtless, much good might be effected 
by such associations. But ought not the whole 
Church to be actually such a society, and each 
congregation an auxiliary thereto ? Does not each 
congregation receive into its society every child 
that is baptized, being regarded as a mother to the 
same ? Is not each member forbidden to offend one 
of these little ones, that is, tempt them to sin, at the 
peril of God's heavy displeasure ? When the 
minister calls on all the congregation to pray for 
the child, is not this very principle of sponsorship 
recognized, and each member considered as a pa- 
rent praying for his own child, and bound to watch 
over it for good ? 

What parent but must delight at the thought of 
having so many friends praying for and watching over 
their children? But the Church has ever thought 
good to choose some special ones, to co-operate with 
parents at all times, more particularly in this act of 
presenting them to God, and making a covenant 
for them. These, for the most part, are relations 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 35 

and neighbours, who by their example and influence, 
have power to do them much good, but who may 
by neglect, or from the fear of finding fault, do 
them evil. It may be, that neglected as the vows 
of sponsors too often are, more good has been done 
by them, and more evil prevented, than some are 
apt to suppose. Some, who otherwise would re- 
frain from warning words, or from the effort to do 
good to the young ones around them, lest they 
should offend either parents or children, are en- 
couraged to proceed by remembering the vows 
once uttered ; and what parent or what child will 
dispute that right, and who can tell what good a 
word in season, or one earnest prayer may do. 
And even in the case of some most negligent spon- 
sor, or some very weak one who is tempted by 
false indulgence or evil example to lead a young 
one into those very lusts and vanities which he had 
renounced for him, may not the thought of those 
solemn vows, and the place and the occasion, come 
over his conscience, with a power which shall 
cause him to. refrain from the evil he would other- 
wise do. Is not this one way in which the Church 
teaches that most important truth, that we are all 
responsible one for another, and especially for the 
young — that not merely parents, but others have 
an account to render for them — that as the good 



36 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

Samaritan was a better neighbour to the wounded 
man, though not of his country, than the priest or 
the Levite, so some sponsors may be better than 
the natural parents, be truly god-fathers and god- 
mothers to the children of their adoption. The 
vows that are required often contribute to this. 
Nay more, it is important that even fathers and 
mothers have vows put into their mouths, for some 
of them by weakness and neglect, are the worst 
enemies of their children, and the Church does well 
to exact strict promises from them. 

I will only add, that the Bible is full of this prin- 
ciple, and that so the ancient Jews understood it, 
for there was a proverb among them, " That if the 
neighbour of a godly man sinneth, the godly man 
himself hath also sinned ;" so great did they es- 
teem the influence of example and holy intercourse. 
Choose, therefore, my friend, some faithful ones as 
sponsors for your child. Let not courtesy or fear 
of offending direct your choice. Select such as 
you would wish to be guardians and friends of your 
child, were you to be removed by death ; and sure 
I am, in that event you will not object to this well- 
meant effort of the Church for her children's wel- 
fare. 

With the renewal of my request, that you will 
prayerfully consider those vows by which, and in 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 37 

the name of your child, and with your own hearty 
approval, you renounce all that is evil,, and choose 
all that is good, I again invite you to prayer. 



PRAYER. 

O my God, I have now resolved at the earliest 
opportunity to present my child in thy holy temple, 
and ask thy blessing. I wish publicly to confess 
the Saviour of mankind in his name, in the hope 
that he will one day bless me for it, and own the 
deed. I desire to join him to thy people in a cove- 
nant with thee, and to have their prayers in 
his behalf. I wish to see him baptized in the 
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
I do not superstitiously expect salvation for him 
from the waters of baptism, but thou canst make 
the whole sacred transaction a means of grace to 
him, in thine own time and way. Thou didst 
openly send thy Spirit upon thy Son Jesus Christ, 
in the river of Jordan, and it may be thou wilt 
send thy Spirit, how r ever invisible, even now, to 
own and bless my child. I am about to take part 
in the solemn service appointed by the Church, for 
the baptism of my child. O may I use the w r ords 
4 



38 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

with a wise and understanding heart. I am about 
to make those vows which have come down to us 
from the earliest ages of the Church. May I use 
them with a sincere desire that they be fulfilled. 
O God, I do now beforehand in the name of my 
child, most heartily renounce the devil and all 
his works, praying thee to save him from that 
u roaring lion who goeth about seeking whom he 
may devour." I do here renounce this wicked 
world, into which my child is born, with all its 
pomps and vanities, and all the sinful lusts of the 
flesh, praying that he may neither follow nor be 
led by them. I do most sincerely believe the ar- 
ticles of the Christian faith, and trust that my child 
will do the same. But O God, how weak and in- 
sufficient I am for this work. Send me help from 
the sanctuary. Direct me in the choice of faithful 
sponsors, who will love my child, and whose prayers, 
instruction, and example, shall be blest to him. I 
ask all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 



OX THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 39 

LETTER IV. 

My Dear Friend : 

The baptism of your child is now over. In the 
name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, pure 
water was poured over his sweet face, and the sign 
of the cross made on his brow, in token that here- 
after he should not be ashamed to confess that 
Saviour, now confessed for him. Solemn prayers 
were also used, and thus he was received into the 
congregation of Christ's Church, and declared to be 
grafted into Christ's body — the Church. So far as 
the outward part, the washing of regeneration, or 
baptism with water goes, all has certainly been 
rightly done. As to the fervency of the prayers 
offered up, the faith of these taking part in the 
transaction, the baptism of the soul by the Spirit, 
God only knows. Still should your child die, or 
should it have died at any time from his birth until 
the age of knowing good from evil, I doubt not that 
a merciful God, for the sake of him who tasted 
death for us all, would receive him to his arms. 
But think not that all is done and your child safe, 
though sealed with God's own sign, and thus renew- 
edly assured of his love. If he live how much is 
to be done for him and by him in order to salva- 



40 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

tion. What you and others have done, is only to 
be regarded as a pledge and beginning of what is 
to be done, just as the first nursing care of a parent 
and other friends, is only the beginning of much 
more which is needed, else the child must perish. 
It is your duty to renew the dedication of your 
child each day, and to entreat for him the Holy 
Spirit, which alone can enable him, to fulfil the 
vows nffle in his name. So soon as his infant lips 
are able to utter the dear name of Father, he should 
be taught to call upon that Father who is in Heaven. 
Let the good form of prayer, given by our blessed 
Lord, as well as others, be constantly used by him, 
as we know not how soon God may pour the spirit 
of prayer into his heart, enabling him to say, Abba 
Father, and to give good proof that he is born of 
the word and spirit, as well as of water. In order 
to do your part in bringing him to this filial feeling, 
you must now look on him, not as an innocent little 
being, so born because a child of promise, or so 
made in the waters of baptism, because thus a child 
of the Church, but still as a poor sinful creature, 
whose first exhibitions of character will give sad 
proofs of corruption. You must remember that the 
very condition on which you were permitted to 
enter him formally into Christ's Church, by having 
the seal of baptism in the name of the triune God 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 41 

put upon him, was that so soon as he should reach 
the age of discretion, he should come as a poor 
penitent sinner to Chris ftor salvation. It is your's 
to make use of God's holy law as a schoolmaster, 
to bring him thus to Christ. It is your duty to be 
ever watching the developments of sin in his tem- 
pers and actions, and to be showing him how con- 
trary these are to God's holiness, and how offensive 
in his sight, needing the death and intercession of 
the Saviour, and the sanctifying influences of the 
Spirit, and thus bringing him to that faith and re- 
pentance, without which, baptism with water, and 
all its other accompaniments, will be of no avail. 
If, according to St, Paul, circumcision profiteth, if 
the law be kept, otherwise the circumcision becomes 
uncircumcision, so baptism is the mere washing 
away of the filth of the flesh, and is not holy bap- 
tism, such as God approves, unless there be the 
answer of a good conscience — that is the requisite 
qualification of faith and repentance. It seems, 
then, that according to Scripture and the Church, 
the efficacy or profit of these ordinances in the case 
of infants, is made to depend on something future, 
whatever God may do in the way of preparation. 

The benefit of circumcision and baptism, seems 
to have been suspended until the time of knowing 
good from evil, and then if the terms be complied 
4* 



42 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

with, and the conditions fulfilled, the blessing is 
realized ; otherwise, though the outward circumci- 
sion and baptism has been observed, they are as 
though they were not. But again I say how much 
depends upon yourself whether the baptism be a 
mere washing of the body, and not the answer of a 
good conscience, the new birth unto righteousness, 
the new creature in Christ, the conversion or turn- 
ing of the soul to God. It is your's during the ten- 
der years of your child, to teach him that truth 
which he cannot know of himself, and by which 
God sanctifies the soul — to sow the seed of God's 
word in his heart, by which we are born again. 
It is your's to train him in the way that he should 
go, remembering the promise, that when he is old 
he will not depart from it. It is your's to bring him 
up in the nurture as well as admonition of the Lord, 
remembering that nurture means godly discipline. 

If the Church requires you to say positively and 
unhesitatingly, that your child shall believe certain 
things, and renounce certain things, and do certain 
things, it must be that you have great power to in- 
fluence him to fulfil these promises, and until he 
comes to the fearful age of responsibility, you }^our- 
self are held responsible for the full amount of what- 
ever power you may exert over him. 

You become guilty of his want of faith, and self- 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 43 

denial, and obedience, so far as he is capable of 
them, and you could help him to the attainment. 
He will believe almost any thing you choose to 
teach him, especially if it be the truth of God. He 
will do, and forbear to do, what you shall take due 
pains to effect. During his tender years he is in- 
capable of self-control, but you can control him. 
He cannot watch against temptation, but you can 
guard him against it. It is not expected that he 
should correct his own faults, but you can and ought 
to do it for him. He cannot pray for God's Holy 
Spirit in faith, but you can do it for him. He can- 
not avoid or resist that evil one, who as a roaring 
lion goes about, seeking whom he may devour, but 
you can do much in this way. He cannot avoid 
evil communication, but you can preserve him in a 
great measure from its corrupting influence. How 
much is there that parents can do for their children, 
which the children cannot do for themselves, and is 
it not cruel to neglect it ? Does not he who spoileth 
his child hate him ? The civil laws hold parents 
accountable for many things done by their children, 
until an age far beyond that which the Church con- 
templates as the age of discretion, and does not God 
hold them reponsible also, and guilty of their chil- 
dren's ignorance "and vice; and is not the Church 
justified in the charge she lays upon them, and the 



44 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

account she requires of them, and will not these 
very children upbraid them with the cruelty of not 
doing for them what they could not do for themselves, 
at that weak and tender age, when habits are formed, 
which often baffle all the strength of manhood to 
overcome. 

But now let me tell you, my dear friend, that 
you cannot do your duty so as to secure God's 
blessing and your child's welfare, without time, 
and trouble, and resolution, and perseverance, and 
above all, the mighty help of God. You must 
make sacrifices of ease, of pleasure, of fashion, of 
popularity ; must differ much from most around 
you in the training of your children, and must say, 
"Whatever others may do, as for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord," as you hope for 
success. 

Permit me to conclude this letter by saying, that 
he who thus writes, has from his age, his office, and 
other circumstances, had a more than ordinary op- 
portunity of observing the effects of different modes 
of training up the young. He can now speak from 
an attentive observation on four generations, includ- 
ing the one with which he entered life, and that 
which is fast rising into manhood. He feels, there- 
fore, that he may, and is in duty bound, for the 
benefit of others, to give a decided testimony on 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 45 

this subject. That testimony is unhesitatingly 
given in favour of the effects of a religious educa- 
tion faithfully, conscientiously, and perseveringly 
pursued. He has seen many failures even where 
there was some degree of sincere desire and endea- 
vour to have their children to be God's children. 
This results from the constitution of man, and the 
free agency which belongs to him. Sometimes, 
indeed, they happen where great care and fidelity 
have been observed. If it were not for this, if re- 
ligious education invariably resulted in the piety of 
the subjects thereof, we might be tempted to ascribe 
it all to the never-failing agency of man, and thus 
rob God of his glory, and not seek his grace as in- 
dispensable. 

But if asked where I have seen the most fre- 
quent and most marked success, I would at once, 
and with an unerring hand, point to families where 
almost, if not all the children were the blest : and not 
only these, but where children's children seemed 
as it were to inherit the blessing. From such 
families, not only faithful members of the Church, 
but devoted ministers of religion have come forth 
in numbers to perpetuate the work. An interest- 
ing volume might be written tracing the connexion 
between their religious training and subsequent 
lives. But if I am asked as to the character of 



46 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

these persons, and the manner of their dealing with 
the young, I must say, they were not the half- 
hearted, the wavering, the inconsistent, who toge- 
ther with some religious discipline mingle much 
of weak indulgence, with some religious instruction 
and desires for their children's salvation, mingle 
much of this world's unhallowed tuition, and too 
much desire for this world's honours and riches ; 
but they were the true hearted ones who really 
sought for their children the kino-dom of Heaven 
and its righteousness first, trusting to God to add 
whatever else might be necessary, — they were 
pains-taking, praying, watching parents, who be- 
lieved that if they did their duty faithfully, no 
matter how unpleasant at the time to their poor 
sinful children, and how contrary to the practice of 
their neighbours, God would bless them. They 
were persons who entered into the full meaning of 
the baptismal vows, and felt that they also virtually 
bound themselves to do all that in them lay to in- 
duce their children to fulfil them to the letter and 
the spirit. They were persons who strictly followed 
all the directions given to parents and sponsors, in 
the baptismal service, and brought their children 
up in the principles set forth in the catechism, not 
merely because the Church had thus set them forth, 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 47 

but chiefly because they believed them to be drawn 
from the Holy Bible. 

I do here testify that such are the parents, who 
according to my observation, have been blessed, 
while those who have erred, as did even an Eli 
and a David, by false indulgence, and as far more 
have done by trying to bring up their children for 
the two-fold service of God and mammon, have 
failed, though God may sometimes have shown the 
power of his grace by the conversion of their ill-edu- 
cated children, as he does also at times save the chil- 
dren of the most ungodly, plucking them as brands 
from the burning. And here let me add, that how- 
ever it may continue as a proverb, that the sons of 
ministers are usually the most irreligious, and how- 
ever true it is that the sons of irreligious ministers 
are most apt to be so, and that some even pious 
ministers are very negligent of their children's re- 
ligious education, and spoil them by indulgence, 
yet it is a fact that God does abundantly bless the 
children of faithful ministers, who faithfully train 
them for Heaven, and that a great army of preachers 
has ever been on the field, the sons of those who 
have fallen on that field, or worn out in the service. 
What would the sanctuary do without the many 
sons who have succeeded to the fathers' offices ? 



48 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

Follow the example, my dear friend, of those who 
ever keep before their hearts the one thing needful 
as that which they desire for their children, and 
make every thing else yield to this. Then, and 
only then, can you expect the blessing of Him, who 
declares that he is a jealous God, and must have 
the supreme love and entire service of his children. 
God grant that you and your child may thus serve 
him. 

Yours, truly. 



PRAYER. 

O my God, my child is now connected with thy 
Church on earth, not merely by its birth in a Chris- 
tian land and of believing parents, and because of 
thy promise to the seed of such, but more fully by 
an outward ordinance of thine own appointment. 
Although as thy creature, and as the object of thy 
redeeming love, it was already bound to serve thee,, 
and although its parents were already under the 
highest obligations to bring it up for Heaven, yet 
we bless thee for appointing an ordinance to assure 
us yet more of thy love and of our duty. May the 
solemn vows which have been offered, the more 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 49 

move us to perform our parts and duties, and when 
our child shall understand all that he has promised 
by us, may he gladly take these vows upon him- 
self, and claim the full blessing which we have 
sought for him. O God, how much is yet to be 
done, and how weak and insufficient am I for its 
performance. Strengthen me, I pray thee, for my 
duty. I would daily renew the dedication of my 
child to thee, and ask thy Holy Spirit to restrain 
his corrupt propensities, and renew his sinful na- 
ture. Let me not be blind to his faults, but rather 
seek to know them, that I may endeavour to correct 
them. Save me from all undue anxiety for his 
earthly condition. May his immortal soul be the 
object of my chief solicitude. May my resolution 
ever be to regulate his instruction and government 
by the rule of thy word, and not by the customs 
and principles of others. May I consider no labour 
too great which is bestowed on the accomplishment 
of this most important of all objects. And, O God, 
give me the unspeakable happiness of seeing this, 
my child, at the earliest period when he can know 
good from evil, and can understand what has been 
done for him, come forward with an holy boldness, 
and avow himself the soldier of the blessed Jesus. 
So may he continue to his life's end, and finally be 
received together with the faithful into the kingdom 
5 



50 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

of Heaven above. Grant this, O God, for Christ's 
sake. Amen. 



LETTER V. 

My dear Friend : 

The importance of the subject will justify a con- 
tinuance of my remarks on the duty which de- 
volves on you, as to the religious education of your 
child. I shall now refer you to some of the direc- 
tions given in the baptismal and confirmation ser- 
vice of the Church, which you will find to be in 
conformity with the sentiments already expressed. 

Immediately after the baptism we are called on 
to pray that this child may, lead the rest of his life 
according to this beginning — -that is, according to the 
prayers offered up for him — according to the solemn 
vows made in his name ; not that a new nature has 
been put into him, and that being made an innocent 
angel, he is only to preserve that nature, and never 
need repentance, as some would understand it. In 
order that he may go on according to the beginning 
made, the sponsors are directed to see that this in- 
fant be taught, so soon as he shall be able to learn, 
what a solemn vow, promise, and profession he 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 51 

hath here made by them, and they must call upon 
him to hear sermons, and chiefly that he learn the 
creed, the Lord's prayer, and the ten commandments, 
and all other things which a Christian ought to 
know and believe to his soul's health ; and when 
he has done this, and is sufficiently instructed in 
the other parts of the Church catechism, that is, 
what relates to the promises and the sacraments, 
then is he to be brought to the Bishop to be con- 
firmed by him, that is, when he is able with the 
use of his ow r n mouth, and the consent of his own 
will, to renew all that was promised for him in his 
baptism. In other words, he is to come when he 
has attained to the faith and repentance which was 
promised in his baptism, or w\hen he has expe- 
rienced that " death unto sin and new birth unto 
righteousness," w r hich in the catechism is declared 
to be the inward and spiritual grace of baptism, and 
to which his baptism w r ith water, in the name of the 
Trinity, if rightly used, contributed as one of the 
means of receiving it, and as a pledge to assure him 
thereof, although the grace be not tied to the mo- 
ment and act of baptism. 

In these w^ords, my dear friend, you perceive not 
merely the means which the Church directs you to 
use with your children for the purpose of improving 
the privileges of baptism, but also that she confi- 



52 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

dently expects an early effect from them, viz., that 
as soon as it is capable of understanding its own 
condition and what Christ's religion is. This is 
the most critical and eventful period in the life of 
men. Now, it is that they turn to or from God — 
that they see no beauty in Christ and his religion, 
or that they become altogether lovely. Previous to 
this time, if they should die, there is good hope that 
he who pities as a father does his children, and 
knows how to have compassion on the ignorant, will 
receive them to himself, and effect whatever change 
is necessary to fit them for his love and service in 
Heaven ; but if they pass this age and choose not 
God for their portion, and Christ for their Saviour, 
where is our hope for them? Well may parents be 
uneasy and distressed as to such. God no doubt 
permits uncertainty to rest on the period of respon- 
sibility, in order to make parents more diligent and 
prayerful in behalf of their children, that they may 
be prepared for death whenever it comes. As to 
this critical period, however, let me warn you 
against a fatal error and weakness of too many pa- 
rents, who relax their efforts, and relinquish their 
plan of action, just at the time when the steady arm 
of discipline, and the voices of holy admonition are 
most needful. At the very time when the world, 
the flesh, and the devil, whom they renounced in 



OX THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 53 

the name of their children, are making their mcst 
vigorous efforts to secure them, lest they escape 
from their hands, some parents begin to falter and 
to change, and after having dene much in the way 
of previous nurture and admonition, now seem 
through weakness to let go the reins which God 
had put into their hands, or through fear that their 
children may not enter the world with advantage, 
now betray them to the enemy, by seeking the 
kingdom of this world for them at present, and still 
hoping that the things which make for their ever- 
lasting peace, will at some future day be added. 

It is at this critical juncture, when the two worlds 
are striving for dominion over the youthful heart, 
that the Church bids sponsors and ministers bend 
all their efforts towards securing it for Heaven. 
Her chief officers are sent about to see what suc- 
cess has attended these labours, and to add their 
efforts in the rite of confirmation, for the permanent 
establishment of the young in the service of God. 

This belief in, and expectation of, early piety in 
those who had been faithfully trained in the nur- 
ture and admonition of the Lord, is not peculiar to 
the Christian Church. God had long before said, 
"I know my servant Abraham, that he will com- 
mand his household after him," and had declared 
by Solomon, how he " loved those who loved him, 
5* 



54 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

and that those who sought him early should find 
him." The pious Jews not only taught the laws 
of God to their children in the diligent manner 
commanded through Moses, but believed in the 
efficacy of the word thus taught for the conversion 
of the souls of their children. At three years of 
age they were allowed to enter with their parents 
into the temple, and be present at the services. At 
the age of six or seven, when they had learned to 
read the Books of Moses, they were considered as 
capable of some responsible acts. At the age of 
thirteen, there was something like the rite of con- 
firmation, in their renewal of the vows of circumci- 
sion, after which they partook of the passover. 

Our Lord, it is believed, went to the Temple at 
twelve years of age for this purpose. From the 
age of thirteen to twenty, the sons of Jewish parents 
w r ere called young men — not as is too often the case 
with us, because they had cast ofT parental autho- 
rity, and were allowed to be their own rulers, but 
as St. John says, u because they had overcome the 
wicked one." In a public profession of the Jewish, 
faith, they had given proof of a renunciation of the 
devil and all his works, and of their determination 
to serve the Lord. Thus did they remember their 
Creator in the days of their youth. And is there 
any thing in the religion of Christ more difficult to 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 55 

be understood and realized in the heart and life, 
than in the Jewish ? The Jews only saw through 
a glass darkly what w r e see face to face. Easy is 
our yoke, and light our burden compared with 
their's. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings 
in the Church of Christ, that is, out of the renewed 
hearts of very young disciples of Christ, can God 
bring forth praise. 

If there be any one thing above all others, my 
dear friend, which our Church in her services and 
discipline seeks, it is this early turning to, and 
choosing the Lord. Therefore does she give the 
directions I have mentioned in the first part of this 
letter, viz : That as soon as they shall be able to 
learn what a solemn vow, promise, and profession 
they have made by you, you must teach them what 
it is. You must tell them that it was considered 
their vow, because what God requires of them, that 
it is their bounden duty to fulfil, and that it must 
be the loss of their souls to draw back. 

You must not do the work of God deceitfully, 
but tell them honestly all that they have promised 
and renounced ; and give them all the aid in your 
power by precept and example, to redeem the 
pledges made. That they may know these things 
the better, you must call on them to hear sermons, 
whereby you may perceive what an honour God 
puts on that ordinance which many despise, and 



56 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

which some, even among Christians, are disposed to 
undervalue. Foolishness as it seems to the irreli- 
gious, it is nevertheless the great instrument by 
which God saves those that believe. Parents, there- 
fore, should see and take their children to the house 
where sermons are preached ; and ministers should 
preach so as that the little ones may easily under- 
stand them, and thus be made wise unto salvation. 
I need not say what kind of sermons were in- 
tended by our forefathers who gave that direction. 
They were not such sermons as had for a long 
time been preached, when any were preached, not 
such as magnified the Church and Sacraments, and 
the saints, and the priesthood, and the ceremonials of 
religion, and the works of men beyond measure, but 
such as our Lord and the Apostles preached, such as 
the noble army of martyrs and confessors, in the very 
first and best ages of the Church preached, such as 
the valiant Reformers preached ; sermons which 
magnified Christ and his word ; such as humbled the 
sinner and sent him penitent and believing to the 
foot of the cross, which put all other things in their 
right place, and assigned them their due proportion 
of importance. Faithful specimens of such ser- 
mons we have in the Homilies of our Church, 
which are recommended in the Articles ; and which 
not only have been often read in public, accord- 
ing to their original design, but deserve to be 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 57 

read in private as containing wholesome doctrine, 
not only for the times in which they were written, 
but for the times in which we live also ; and which 
I hope you will make a part of the course of in- 
struction you shall pursue with your child. And 
God grant that it may always be the lot of yourself 
and your child, to sit under some faithful man of 
God, who preaches the truth as thus set forth. 

But think not for a moment that our Church pre- 
fers the teaching of man in sermons, to the teaching 
of God in his own w T ord, for immediately after the 
injunction to see that the child hear sermons, it is 
said, " And chiefly ye shall provide that he may 
learn the creed, the Lord's prayer, the ten com- 
mandments, and all other things which a Christian 
ought to know and believe to his soul's health." 
You must teach him the summary of the Gospel as 
in the creed — the summary of the law as in the ten 
commandments — and the summary of devotion as 
in the Lord's prayer. These are all found in the 
catechism, together with their explanations ; also 
the brief accounts of the sacraments, with the quali- 
fications for their use, and the benefits of worthily 
receiving them. 

The whole catechism is required to be known, 

believed, and felt, in order to confirmation. Nor is 

his so slight an attainment as some suppose, from 



58 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

the mere sound of these words which declare the 
requisite qualification for confirmation. If you will 
read its title, you will find it to be " An instruction 
to be learned by every person before he be brought 
to the Bishop to be confirmed." Now although it 
be well to begin betimes to impress the words on the 
memories of children, and to explain the meaning of 
the same to their minds, and seek to impress the 
same on their hearts, yet it is evident that the whole 
of it cannot be understood, and realized, and re- 
peated in sincerity and truth, until we have come 
to the age of discretion, until we have attained that 
which is sought for and vowed at the time of our 
baptism. We must feel our sinful state by nature, 
be conscious of our renewal by God's spirit, have 
realized that " repentance by which we forsake sin, 
and that faith which steadfastly believes the pro- 
mises of God in the sacrament of baptism, viz. : par- 
don of sin through Christ, and sanctification by the 
Holy Ghost." Then are we prepared to thank Gcd 
in the rite of confirmation, for the forgiveness of all 
our sins, pray to him as children for the increase 
of all our graces, and proceed immediately to the 
Lord's Supper, and in it to communion with him 
and his saints upon earth. 

Such is plainly the teaching and the aim of our 
Church in the service we have been considering. 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 59 

She is sustained in it by the word of God, and the 
experience of man. In every age, and under every 
dispensation, there have been blessed witnesses to 
its truth in the genuine piety of numbers of very 
young persons, who, by the grace of God acting 
through the instrumentality of his Church and all 
the means of his ordaining, have become wise unto 
salvation. Seek it therefore my dear friend for 
your child, in sincerity and earnestness, believing 
that it is an attainable blessing. Be not afraid, as 
too many parents are, of an early profession of 
piety. I would have you be much afraid of a false 
profession, but not of an early one when sincere. 
If I may be allowed to bear my testimony on this 
subject also, I would say, that while I have with fear 
and trembling, laid my hands on the heads of some 
very young ones, I have had the happiness to know 
and to observe, that for the most part they have 
continued steadfast and consistent, while many of 
riper years have disappointed all the hopes enter- 
tained of them. But then I must emphatically say, 
that the very young ones alluded to, were the chil- 
dren of true hearted parents, who faithfully trained 
them for Heaven, and that themselves gave the 
strongest proofs in their conversation and conduct 
of having experienced "a death unto sin and a new 
birth unto righteousness." May such be the bless- 



60 LETTERS TO A MOTHER 

ing which is in store for your dear child. Once 
more let me offer you a few words in which to seek 
God's blessing for him. 



PEAYEE. 

O my God, once more I would lift up my heart 
in prayer for this poor child of sin which lies before 
me. I now look on his sweet face, as it were the 
face of an angel ; I now anticipate the many joyous 
moments I shall have in seeing his first smiles, in 
hearing his first words, in aiding his first steps, and 
observing the first dawnings of intelligence of his 
infant mind ; but alas ! how soon must I also witness 
the sad proofs of inbred sin, .and how 1 tremble to 
think of the rapid increase of his corruption, and of 
the temptation which will surround him. Let me be 
faithful in discerning and not concealing his faults, in 
controlling and not indulging him, in praying for him 
and teaching him to pray, as well as communicating 
w T ith all care those instructions which I was enjoined 
to do at the time of his baptism. Let me never weary 
in this duty, but devote a sufficient portion of each 
day to its performance, rather neglecting other 
things, and suffering loss of earthly things, than 



ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. 61 

omitting this. May I in faith and with earnest 
prayer, and great anxiety, seek the renewal of his 
soul at the earliest possible period. Save me from 
all uneasy thoughts about his condition here below, 
and may I never for a moment yield to the evil 
principles and practices of the age we live in, and 
the customs of those around me. And O God, at 
that fearful period, when my child has come to 
knew good and ill, and is to choose between them, 
be thou especially and effectually present by thy 
Holy Spirit to incline his heart to good. Convinced 
of sin by the Holy Ghost, brought to Christ by the 
law as a schoolmaster teaching him his lost condition, 
may he have joy and peace in believing that thy 
Son hath died for him, and that thou, for that Son's 
sake, hath accepted him. O God be with him 
through every period of his life, in every trial that 
awaits him, in the hour of death, and in the day of 
judgment, to deliver him from all that is evil, and 
finally to save him with an everlasting salvation ; 
and grant to his parents the unspeakable happiness 
of uniting with him in the Church above, in the 
love and service of that Father, and that Son, and 
that Spirit, in whose name he was baptized in the 
Church below. Amen. 



APPENDIX, 

Containing three letters to the same, concerning 
the language of the Baptismal service. 



My dear Friend : 

Although I have in the foregoing letters given 
you, however briefly and imperfectly, the substance 
of what the Scriptures and the Prayer-Book enjoin 
and teach on the subject of the baptism and religious 
training of children, it may not be amiss to add a 
few remarks on the meaning of certain expressions 
in the baptismal office, which it is desirable you 
should use understanding^ and heartily. They 
have given not a little trouble to some candid and 
conscientious persons, who are not satisfied with the 
mere ceremony of baptism, no matter in what way 
or with what words it be performed. At different 
times it has been proposed to vary or omit them, as 
not essential to the right administration of baptism ; 



64 APPENDIX. 

it has, however, never been done, and those who 
differ in sentiment on the subject alluded to in them, 
and as to the meaning of the expressions themselves, 
have continued to use them according to their own 
view of them. 

There are some who speak very confidently in 
favour of their own interpretation, and even say it 
is impossible that any honest and sensible person 
can put other sense on these words than their own. 
Others, however, there are, not less wise, candid, 
and pious, who, though differing somewhat among 
themselves, yet cannot so plainly see that but one 
meaning may be put upon them. Thus it is with 
the Scriptures themselves. There are some very 
positive persons who are perfectly sure . that they 
have the true key to the understanding of the most 
disputed passages and difficult subjects, Others 
more humble, and not without an opinion of their 
own, and that formed after much study, yet have 
doubt as to its infallibility, and see some force in 
the reasoning of others. It is a fact worthy of notice, 
that the points, whether in the Scriptures or in the 
standards of churches, about which there is much 
positiveness and intolerance on the part of some, 
are those which from their very nature are most 
hidden from the view of man, the secret things 
which belong to God, and fully to understand which 



APPENDIX. 65 

requires that we be wise above what is written. 
Such of necessity must be the question as to the 
operation of the Spirit on the infant mind, and the 
immediate effects thereof. Where has God revealed 
this unto us, or how can we ascertain it with cer- 
tainty ? 

The disputed passages in our service to which I 
allude, are those which speak of the baptized, 
whether child or adult, as being regenerate or born 
again— -not of water only, but of the Holy Ghost, so 
as to seem to affirm a certain positive moral change 
in the baptized at the time, and by the instrumen- 
tality of baptism. I would remark that the same 
expressions are to be found in the early liturgies, 
and in the writings of the fathers ; and what should 
diminish our confidence in any opinion we may 
adopt as to the true meaning of the same as now 
used, is the well known fact that these fathers 
differed among themselves, not only as to the sub- 
jects as presented in Scripture, but as to the precise 
meaning and design of the same words as used in 
their liturgies. No wonder then that the same 
difference should still exist. It may be well also to 
state that these terms are to be found in the confes- 
sions of all the reformed churches in connexion with 
baptism, but have not attracted the same attention, 
or occasioned the same uneasiness, because not 
6* 



66 APPENDIX. 

brought into constant use in the administration of 
baptism as in our Church. Different views, how- 
ever, have been entertained as to the proper inter- 
pretation of them. Such then having been the 
diversity of opinion from the time of the fathers to 
the present day, as to the meaning of the very same 
terms as used in baptism, it is not wonderful that 
some diversity should still continue. 

In order to the more comfortable and edifying 
use of the service, and that your mind may not be 
offended by the terms employed on that interesting, 
occasion, let me state what are the leading interpre- 
tations w 7 hich may with safety and a good conscience 
be adopted, and what are untrue and dangerous in 
the opinion of the friend who addresses you. 

1st, The first method of interpreting the term 
regeneration, is that which supposes it to refer to 
certain religious privileges and advantages assured 
to us in baptism, by the right use of which privi- 
leges we may, through God's grace, be renewed in 
the spirit of our minds, but which are not them- 
selves that moral change. We are said to be re- 
generated because placed in the midst of such ad- 
vantages. It is argued b}r the advocates of this 
view that the term regeneration is to be found in 
but two places of Scripture, and only in one of these 
in connexion with baptism, and then distinguished 



APPENDIX. 67 

from the renewal of the heart by the Spirit. In the 
Epistle of St. Paul to Titus, we are said to be saved 
** by the washing of regeneration and renewing of 
the Holy Ghost ;" the former term being generally 
ascribed to baptism, or being born again of water, 
and the latter to the birth of the Spirit. It is there- 
fore said that the term is to be understood in a lower 
sense than that in which many now understand it. 
They appeal in behalf of their view to the fact that 
other scriptural terms are certainly used in two 
senses, a higher and lower. The following are spe- 
cimens. The Temple and the vessels thereof, and 
even the land of Judea, were called holy on ac- 
count of the purposes to which they were conse- 
crated, though no change took place in their mate- 
rial or substance, just as we call the water of 
baptism and the bread and wine of the Lord's 
supper holy, although Protestants do not believe 
that any change takes place in their substance. 
The children of believing parents also are declared 
by St. Paul to be holy, because of their birth and 
the promise made to them. Certain privileges ap- 
pertained to them, on account of which they were 
called holy, although they might never become 
holy in the high sense of that word. Again, in 
many places all the Israelites are called the people 
of God — the sons of God — the chosen people^-the 



68 APPENDIX. 

children of the kingdom — children of Abraham — 
elect — beloved — to whom pertaineth the adoption. 
These titles are given to them in reference to the 
favours God had showed them — their separation from 
other nations — their circumcision — the Temple and 
Scriptures — on account of all which things, St. Paul 
says that their advantage and profit was "much 
every way." In like manner it is argued, that the 
baptized are in the enjoyment of all Christian pri- 
vileges, and may be called regenerate, the children 
of God, saints, and elect, &c. ; and yet it. may be 
only in a lower sense, that these te'rms are applied 
to them. It is affirmed, that in the Old Testament 
the same terms are used in a higher sense, when 
applied to the truly pious, who have improved their 
advantages. " All is not Israel," we are told, 
" which is called Israel" — that is, not Israel in the 
bigher sense of the word. Some of those called chil- 
dren, were " cursed children," " rebellious children." 
"If God were your Father, ye would love me," 
said our Saviour, to some who were the sons of 
God, in one sense, but because they did the w T orks 
of the devil, he tells them that they were " of their 
father the devil." Amongst the Jews, as amongst 
the Christians, some there were who had only a 
name to live — only the form of godliness — only cried 
Lord, Lord, but did not his will. On the other 



APPENDIX. 69 

hand, we have descriptions of the true sons of God 
in language like the following: " He that doeth 
righteousness is born of God" — " every one that 
loveth is born of God"- — " he that is born of God sin- 
neth not." Now, these things cannot be said of all or 
most of the baptized. Therefore they must be said to 
be born of God, in another sense, so far as their bap- 
tism is a new birth. The true children of God are 
said to be " renewed in the spirit of their minds" — 
to have "new hearts and new spirits within them" 
— to have " the law written in their hearts" — to be 
the u temples of the Holy Ghost." But perhaps 
you will say the expression in the prayer, " that 
thou hast been pleased to regenerate this infant 
with thy Holy Spirit," is too strong to admit of 
having the lower sense put upon it. To this it is 
answered, that the phrase is still different from 
other passages which undoubtedly speak of a moral 
change, such as u renewed in the spirit of our 
minds" — having "new hearts and right spirits 
within us;" and that there may be a change 
effected in our religious privileges which may, 
however, not amount to making us u new creatures 
in Christ," though it may lead to it. The advo- 
cates for the lower sense put upon the passage, say 
that there is a distinction to be made between the 
gifts of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost itself, 



70 APPENDIX. 

as dwelling in us and purifying our hearts. Thus, 
the gifts of tongues, of miracles, of prophesyings, 
were all from one and the same Spirit, but were 
not always accompanied by holy dispositions and 
habits wrought in the soul. The Holy Ghost, say 
they, seems to have been that person of the Trinity 
left in special charge of the Church after our Lord's 
personal presence was withdrawn, so that what was 
done by the Apostles and others, was said io be 
done by the Holy Ghost. It w T as the Holy Ghost 
which appointed ministers to be overseers of the 
churches, and especially presided at their ordina- 
tion. Ordination was one of the gifts of the Holy 
Ghost, who intrusted the office of the ministry to 
certain persons ; but they were not always filled 
with the Holy Ghost as to its sanctifying influences. 
The Apostolic Church itself furnished sad proofs 
that all who had the gifts of the Spirit, were not re- 
newed in the spirit of their minds. Our Lord him- 
self says, that some of them were workers of iniquity, 
and would be lost. Still they w^ere in one sense, 
"men of God," as were all the prophets of old. 

In favour of this view of the subject, an appeal 
is made to the service for the ordination of priests, 
in which there is a form which has these words 
put into the mouth of the Bishop w 7 hen he confers 
the office : " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office 



APPENDIX. 71 

of a priest in the Church of God;" wherein there 
seems to be a clear conveyance of the Holy Ghost 
itself to the candidate. But lest it should be so 
construed, another form was added explanatory of 
it, and which is, I believe, always used, viz. : " Re- 
ceive the office of a priest in the Church of God." 
This shows that the Church considers that in be- 
stowing the office, she bestows certainly one of the 
gifts of the Holy Ghost, though the person receiving 
the office should be as destitute of the spirit of holi- 
ness as Judas himself, who received the Apostleship 
from our Lord, or some of those who exercised cer- 
tain gifts of the Spirit, but were evil men. This 
explanation of the form of conveying ordination, is 
therefore adduced in justification of the lower sense 
put upon the term " regenerate by the Holy Ghost" 
in baptism. 

Another reason urged in favour of the lower 
sense being put upon the term regenerate, is the 
identity between the services for adults and infants. 
Differing as the subjects do in age, capacity, and 
character, there is scarce any variation of language 
in the service, and none whatever in the thing 
prayed for and said to be received. Both are re- 
generated and born again, in some sense, in which 
they were not before. Now the adult is required 
to come to baptism with true faith and penitence, 



72 APPENDIX. 

such as none can have except he be renewed by 
the Holy Ghost ; he is also said to have been 
" made a child of God by faith in Christ," although 
thanks are returned for him as for the infant, as 
" now being born again ;" a prayer having been 
before made that he " might be born again." Since 
then, the same language is used to express the same 
effect in both the infant and the adult, and since the 
adult had experienced the moral change before, we 
must find some sense common to both, in which the 
words can be understood. Now, there are some 
things belonging to baptism which are common to 
both, and which neither had before. Neither of 
them had received the seal of the covenant, neither 
of them had been admitted to the fellowship of 
Christ's Church, in the way of his appointment ; 
neither of them had received, this kind of renewed 
assurance of pardon and all needed grace ; neither 
of them had made the kind of public confession re- 
quired by our Lord, and thus received this outward 
and complete, though conditional, title to salvation. 
In the blessings then common to them both, it is said 
we must look for those things which are con- 
tained in the word regenerate, as applied to them 
both : except that to the adult there must be added 
what in one of* our articles is said to be the atten- 



APPENDIX. 73 

dant of baptism, when faithful prayer is offered : 
viz., a confirmation of faith and increase of grace. 

In answer to the question, do we pray only for 
the privileges supposed to belong to the lower sense 
of regeneration, and which are certainly the privi- 
leges of the baptized, it is replied, that the prayers 
used both before and after the baptism, do go be- 
yond this ; they ask for grace through life ; they 
seek eternal life for the soul, but they do not thank 
God for all future grace as given, and for eternal 
life as though already received, but only for those 
things which are actually received. 

It is furthermore adduced in favour of this inter- 
pretation of the words of the service, that whatever 
may be the true scriptural meaning of regeneration, 
and of kindred expressions, such as, born again, &c, 
a reference to the writings of the Fathers, the Refor- 
mers, and other standard writers, will show that the 
term was used by many of them in two senses, accord- 
ing to the subjects on which they were writing. If 
writing as to baptism and its blessings, especially 
when infants were the subjects, they used it in the 
lower sense ; but when applying it to the hearts and 
lives of adults, they used it in the higher sense, as 
the same with conversion, renewal of the mind, a 
new heart, &c. Therefore it is considered as proper 
to assign it the lower sense in the baptismal service. 
7 



74 APPENDIX. 

The advocates for this understanding of the word 
also say it has this advantage, that it does not deny 
but God's spirit may exert some influence over the 
mind of the child, may vouchsafe some beginnings 
of grace, (though they dare not call it such a moral 
change as amounts to a new birth,) at any time God 
may think proper, whether before, at, or after bap- 
tism. It meddles not with that unknown subject. 
Having no means of ascertaining it, no sure promise 
on which to rest, it lets it alone. It prays for God's 
spirit, leaves it to his sovereign will to choose his 
own time for granting such aids, as shall during 
the life of the baptized, suffice for its salvation ; and 
believing that he will do it in a wiser and better 
manner than if we were to appoint him a time and 
a mode when it must be done. 

It is also affirmed that this, view of the term is in 
accordance with the 27th Article, to which I would 
direct your attention, and with the teachings of the 
Catechism. In the latter, we are said to become at 
baptism, members of Christ — that is, of his body 
the Church into which we are grafted — children of 
God — that is, by entering his Church — entitled to 
all its privileges and advantages for becoming the 
sons of God by faith in Christ — also inheritors of 
the kingdom of Heaven — that is, we have an assu- 
rance of Heaven if we die in infancy, or should we 



APPENDIX. 75 

live to the age of discretion, if we fulfil what was 
promised in our baptism. 

In the latter part of the Catechism, baptism with 
water in the name of the Trinity, is said to be a 
means whereby we receive the inward grace, which 
grace is <<a death unto sin, and a new birth unto 
righteousness." It does not say that it is the means, 
as if it were the only means of effecting a death 
unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, but a 
means, that is, one of many means appointed of 
God, and used of man for this purpose.* It does 
not say that it is appointed to produce the effect at 
the moment, as though nothing had been done 
towards it before, or must be done afterwards, but 
only that this ordinance rightly performed, received, 
and used, was appointed to contribute its part 

* In the homily concerning the worthy receiving of the 
Lord's Supper, it is said, " Our Lord and Saviour thought it 
not sufficient to purchase for us his Father's favour again — 
which is that deep fountain of all goodness and eternal life — 
hut also invented the ways most wisely whereby they might 
redound to our commodity and profit. Amongst the which 
means, is the public celebration of the memory of his precious 
death at the Lord's table." In previous homi ies, other means 
had been spoken of, especially prayer and the use of God's word. 

The word or particle the is only used in an inclusive 
sense, in relation to one thing, and that is faith. " The first 
coming unto God is through faith," are the first words of the 
homily on faith. In the homily for Go;d Friday, faith is 
repeatedly declared to be " the means of our salvation," and 
ill one place " the only instrument cf our salvation." 



76 APPENDIX. 

towards the destruction of sin, and the creation of 
righteousness in the soul of man. And surely, say 
they, whether it be an infant or adult who is baptized, 
it is well calculated to do this. It may do it in the 
pious adult by confirming his faith, and increasing 
his grace. It may do it to the infant whenever 
God's blessing attends the efforts of sponsors to im- 
prove his baptismal dedication, and when himself 
shall think upon his vows at any future period, and 
use his baptism a-right. 

I have thus endeavored to set before you one of 
those views, which you may with a good conscience 
take of the part of our service which is objected to 
by some. This view interferes not at all with the 
absolute necessity of a genuine renovation of the 
heart, for it only asserts that the baptized have cer- 
tain privileges, and promises, and aids, which lead 
to that, and bind it upon us as an indispensable 
requisite for Heaven, since, M without holiness no 
man can see the Lord." 

In adopting this construction, you will have the 
sanction of many, whose opinion is deserving of 
your esteem.* 

And now again commending you to the guidance 
of Heaven. I remain yours respectfully. 

* The good old Bishop Hopkins of the Irish Church, has 
adopted and defended this view. Archbishop Tillotson not 
only advocates it and thinks that no one need have scruples 



APPENDIX. 77 



Second Mode of Interpretation, 

My Dear Friend : 

In this letter I shall place before you for con- 
sideration and choice, a second method of under- 
standing the disputed passages in the baptismal 
service, and which has been adopted by wise and 
pious min-sters, and members of our Church. These 
say that the first method is good as far as it goes, 

as to using the Episcopal service, but maintains that the Con- 
tinental Churches thus understood baptismal regeneration as 
used in their confessions. 

Many of the old English divines, as also of the more modern, 
may be classed with the above. 

In the American Episcopal Church I might mention 
Bishops Griswold and Hobart, the latter of whom has main- 
tained it in various publications, but especially in his expla- 
nation of the Church Catechism. The fullest and clearest 
exhibition of it, however, may be seen in a little volume enti- 
tled, " Regeneration," by the late Bishop of Pennsylvania. 
To these there should be added the fact, that in the General 
Convention, 1836, the Bishops proposed certain changes in 
the confirmation service, having in view the correction of in- 
jurious misapprehensions as to the meaning of certain terms 
in that office, bearing on this very subject of baptismal regen- 
eration. The object and effect of those changes would have 
been to establish this view as the sense of the Church in 
America. But though the changes were passed unanimously 
by the Bishops, and by a large. majority of the lower house, it 
was deemed advisable by Bishop Hobart, the mover of them, 
to withdraw the same, as they were connected with other pro- 
posed changes in the service, which gave dissatisfaction to 
many in the Church. 

7 * 



78 APPENDIX. 

but that it stops short of the full meaning of the 
words ; that the word regeneration does indeed in- 
clude all these privileges of the baptized — these 
conditional blessings promised — that sealing of the 
covenant, and union with the visible Church which 
are ascribed to it, but that it also comprehends yet 
more. They are afraid to understand the word re- 
generation, whether as used in the Bible or prayer- 
book in any lower sense, than as embracing a 
change of the inward man. They think therefore 
that in all cases where it, or similar terms are used 
in the prayer-book, an inward and spiritual grace 
is prayed for, and the gift of it made the subject of 
thanksgiving. They acknowledge themselves, how- 
ever, at once to be met with a very formidable 
difficulty in the admitted fact, that so many infants 
and adults are baptized, who never give the slight- 
est evidence of a gracious influence, having been 
exerted over their souls, and of any moral change 
having taken place. So far from this, adults have 
come to it with no holier motives than Simon Magus 
— that is — in very hypocrisy and sin, while innumer- 
able infants have been brought to it in the most 
careless and prayerless manner, and from the earliest 
developments of character have manifested nothing 
but the temper and conduct of children of the evil 
one. How then are we to believe that the Church 



APPENDIX. 79 

would thus speak, and speak unto God in the lan- 
guage of thanksgiving for what she knows in many 
instances cannot exist, and which may mislead the 
minds of men in a matter of such importance ? 

To this it is replied, that the Church would not 
have ventured on such a mode of speech without 
high authority, even that of sacred writers, espe- 
cially the inspired apostles. They say that if we 
look into the Epistles addressed to the Churches, 
which were even then composed of the evil as well 
as the good, we find them, while on some occasions 
warning the evil, yet at others writing as though all 
were saints, elect, beloved ; thanking God for them 
all as such, in the spirit of that charity which 
M hopeth all things," and which received each one's 
profession as a sincere exposition of the heart, leav- 
ing it to the Searcher of all hearts to determine 
who were the faithful. 

At any rate whether the Church has acted wisely 
or not, in thus copying after the language of the 
apostles in their epistles to the first churches, it is 
affirmed to be a fact that she has so done, not in the 
baptismal service only but throughout the Prayer 
Book, especially in her offices. In proof of which, 
they say, that if we open it at the morning service 
we find it entitled "a general confession to be said 
by the whole congregation after the minister, all 



80 APPENDIX. 

kneeling" in which confession none but penitent 
believers can truly unite ; the minister, having ad- 
dressed them all as dearly beloved brethren, in the 
apostle's words. All the other parts of the service, 
too, are the expressions of faith, hope, charity, 
thanksgiving, desire which only the faithful can 
feel ; and in the close all are called on in the prayer 
of St. Chrysostom, to say " Almighty God, who hast 
given us grace at this time, with one accord to make 
our common supplications unto Thee," which words, 
together with the whole prayer, but ill accord with 
the state of mind of too- many usually present in our 
assemblies. Proceeding to the communion office, 
they say, we see in it one of the most penitential as 
well as rapturous services ever used by man in his 
approaches to God, one in which saints on earth 
join with angels and archangels in heaven, in 
praising God, and which concludes with a thanks- 
giving to God for having fed them " with the spi- 
ritual food of the most precious body and blood of 
Christ." All this is appointed to be used by every 
communicant, all being considered as having duly 
received it, although there be so many unworthy 
ones, who, in our article, are said " in nowise to be 
partakers of Christ's body and blood." 

Passing by, for the present, the baptismal service, 
the meaning of which is in dispute, they bid us 



APPENDIX. 81 

turn to the Catechism for instruction which is to be 
understood and felt by those who come to confirma- 
tion, and where all who repeat it heartily thank 
God for having brought them " to this state of sal- 
vation," and profess a belief in Christ as their 
Redeemer, and the Holy Ghost as one " who sanc- 
tifieth them and all the people of God," although so 
many who repeat these professions are so far from 
realizing them. 

Proceeding to the office of Confirmation we are 
directed to the fact that it is for the use of those who 
have realized the faith and penitence promised in 
baptism, so that the Bishop can now say over them, 
not merely that God had " regenerated them by 
water and the Holy Ghost," but had granted unto 
them M the forgiveness of all their sins" which 
must refer to pardon up to the present time ; more- 
over, he prays for an increase of the manifold gifts 
of grace, " of the spirit of wisdom and understand- 
ing, of counsel and ghostly strength, of knowledge 
and true godliness;" all which must be already 
possessed or they could not be increased. And then 
the Bishop, putting his hands on the head of each, 
pronounces him either a child, or servant of God, 
and prays that he may continue such forever, and 
daily increase in the Holy Spirit more and more. 
It is sad to think how untrue these words are of 



82 APPENDIX. 

many who are confirmed, and yet they must all be 
used, though the Church well knew that they would 
be used in some instances over unworthy persons, 
to whom similar words had been untruly applied in 
their baptism.* I will mention only one other 
instance to which they refer, and that is to a pas- 
sage in the burial service, as found in the English 
Prayer Book, and they say that it is a proper 
authority for deciding the principle of interpretation, 
as it was drawn up at the same time and by the 
same persons who adopted the language of the bap-, 
tismal service. In that service as to every one 
who is buried, thanks are returned to God " that it 
hath pleased him to deliver this, our brother, out 
of the miseries of this sinful world," and the hope 
is elsewhere expressed that " he rests in Christ." 
This, say they, is language most untrue of numbers 
over whose graves it is uttered. So offensive was 
it to many, that it was omitted in the American 
Prayer Book and more general expressions substi- 
tuted. Such being the case with some other offices 
in the Prayer Book, it is asked, why may not the 
same principle have led to the use of the strong 



* In the ordination of Priests, after the solemn promises 
made by the candidate, the Bishop affirms positively of every 
one that " God hath given them a good will to do all these 
things." 



APPENDIX, 83 

language in the baptismal service, without sup- 
posing that the Church meant positively and abso- 
lutely to affirm the moral regeneration of every 
baptized child and adult, any more than the gen- 
uine piety of every member, of every congre- 
gation, who receives the Lord's Supper, and is 
confirmed, or, in England, has the burial service 
used over him, As to the baptismal service itself, 
they say, that in the form publicly acknowledging 
private baptism, the Church goes so far in her use 
of positive affirmations as to say, not only that God 
hath " favorably received the present infant — hath 
embraced him with the arms of his mercy," but 
11 as he hath promised in his holy word, ivill give 
unto him the blessing of eternal life, and make him 
partaker of his everlasting kingdom*"* for she 
affirms this without reservation or exception, they 
say, of every child who is baptized ? Can she 
mean to say that every such child will certainly be 
saved when so many live and die impenitent and 
unbelieving. If it be said that the Church surely 
cannot be guilty of such inconsistency as to affirm 
what she does not believe, that is the moral regene- 
ration of every child and adult coming to baptism, 

* In the early English service it is much stronger, " that he 
hath given unto him the blessing of eternal life, and made him 
partaker of his everlasting kingdom." 



84 APPENDIX. 

excusing herself on the plea that in the judgment of 
charity she does it, they ask, whether in this she is 
guilty of deviating from strict truth more than, 
when, with the best intentions, she represents little 
children as making promises, though they cannot 
speak and are unconscious of all that is passing. 
Her language in the Catechism, baptismal, and con- 
firmation services is very strong and clear in de- 
claring that the child makes the promises and is 
held bound to perform them as made by himself, 
time being allowed for the performance. In the 
primitive Church it was still stronger, and sounded 
yet more strangely. — In answer to the question, 
"Does this child believe!" it was replied by the 
sponsor, "he does believe" and so as to the other 
questions. St. Augustine has a long explanation 
and justification of this mode of speech, acknow- 
ledging however that it was not to be understood 
literally. 

The advocates for this mode of expression, pro- 
ceed next to show that though this is the Church's 
manner of speaking in many of her services, yet 
that she no more meant to affirm the actual regene- 
ration of every baptized adult or child, every one 
confirmed or communicating, than St. Paul meant 
to affirm, that all were certainly renewed in their 
hearts whom he calls saints, &c. In proof of this, 



APPENDIX. 85 

they appeal to all her warnings against unworthy 
participation, the pains she takes to have them well 
prepared, the very prayers she offers up, which of 
themselves show that there is some doubt as to the 
reception of the grace, as we do not pray for what 
we have, or certainly shall have in such language 
as she uses. Above all, they adduce the positive 
doctrine of the articles, that in those only who re- 
ceive the sacraments worthily have they a whole- 
some effect. Of course, to be consistent with her- 
self, she must say that no moral effect can take 
place in those who receive them unworthily. As 
to adults, this is scarce denied by any. But as to 
infants it is said, there being no bar or hindrance in 
their minds, all must partake of it worthily, and there- 
fore efficaciously. To this it is replied, that the 
Church no where makes any distinction as to age, 
or affirms that all infants receive baptism worthily, 
there being no bar in them, but declares as to both 
the sacraments, that they must be rightly and wor- 
thily received, or else they have no wholesome 
effect, but on the contrary are injurious. That in- 
fants and their baptism must be included, they 
prove from the fact that at the time the articles were 
drawn up, almost all were baptized in infancy, not 
even a service for adult baptism being prepared till 
long after. What is said, therefore, on unworthy 
8 



86 APPENDIX. 

receiving of the sacraments, must have been meant 
for infants as well as adults. As to the assertion 
that there is no bar in the characters of infants to the 
worthy, and therefore efficacious receiving of baptism, 
it is asked how can that be, when they bring a corrupt 
nature into the world, when original sin is declared 
in one of our articles to be " a fault and corruption 
of nature which deserves God's wrath and damna- 
tion," If asked what then constitutes the worthiness 
of infants which shall make baptism have a whole- 
some operation on any of them, they reply thus : 
1st. God may in the case of some infants choose to 
give the first disposition to holiness, the beginnings 
of grace before baptism, which shall make them 
meet to be partakers of more grace, as perhaps 
John the Baptist had from his birth, and of course 
before his circumcision. This, however, being a 
thing incapable of proof, is not so positively asserted. 
2ndly. They say, that if we examine our baptismal 
service and Catechism, we shall find a peculiar rea- 
son for the baptism of infants, which may serve as 
a key to explain her doctrine as to the manner and 
time of its efficacy on those baptized in infancy. 
In the 27th Article, the reason why the baptism of 
infants should be retained, is " because it is most 
agreeable to the institution of Christ;" but in the 
Catechism, instead of simply affirming this, it is 



APPENDIX. 87 

said, that though faith and repentance are the re- 
quired qualifications for baptism, yet infants, unable 
as they are to perform them, are baptized, because 
" they promise them both by their sureties, which 
promise when they come to age themselves are 
bound to perform." Here then we have the reason 
adduced by the Church, not said to be affirmed in 
Scripture, but her own reason, viz., the promise — 
the supposed, or imputed, and accepted promise, in- 
stead of the actual performance at the time. A 
period is allowed and appointed for its fulfilment. 
If they then make good their promise, they were 
worthy partakers, if not, then unworthy. However 
strange, even contradictory, it may seem, to suppose 
their present worthiness or unworthiness to be de- 
termined by some thing that is yet to be, or not to 
be, it is not more so than to suppose and represent 
them as now making a profession, which they can 
only do at some future day. It is therefore affirmed 
that the Church goes, on the supposition, that the 
present time is transferred during the service to the 
future, and that the children themselves make pro- 
mises, as if they were of age, and she receiving 
them as sincere, returns thanks hy anticipation for 
those who make them, as being God's true children, 
though she is so often doomed to disappointment. 
That little children coming to baptism were re- 



88 APPENDIX. 

garded by the primitive Church in the same light 
as adult converts from Paganism, that they were 
examined and baptized alike is a well known fact. 
In proof that such is the meaning of our service, 
its advocates adduce the fact, that in the writings 
of the early reformers which are now more and 
more consulted, it does appear that they speak much 
of the worthy and unworthy receiving of both the 
sacraments, although baptism was administered 
almost always to infants. One not knowing this 
latter fact, and reading what they say on the subject, 
would be apt sometimes to suppose that baptism was 
then as generally received by adults as the Lord's 
Supper, and that many were upbraided with the 
unworthy receiving of it. But in the case of the 
sacrament of baptism, they must often have alluded 
to infants, who are supposed to have received it 
either worthily or unworthily. Each of the above 
views of worthy and unworthy receiving baptism 
seems to have been entertained. Some of the early 
reformers speak of children as actually having the 
spirit — having faith — either really, or imputed to 
them, as being members of the Church, as being 
inwardly sanctified, and all this before baptism, 
and as constituting their title to baptism, which only 
set forth and sealed what they had before, as in the 
case of an adult. Others ao;ain wrote as if their 



APPENDIX. 89 

worthiness and the efficacy of their baptism depend- 
ed upon their conduct when they were come to the 
age when these promises were to be fulfilled ; the 
thanksgiving for their new birth being by anticipa- 
tion, and in reference to that time. In addition to 
the above reason in favor of this second mode of un- 
derstanding the baptismal service, it is asserted, that if 
there be any one thing more prominent than another 
in the whole history of the reformation, it is the pro- 
test against the doctrine of Rome, that the sacra- 
ments were efficacious, independent of the disposi- 
tion of the recipients, and that, as to those in whose 
behalf the Church returns thanks for a gracious 
blessing attending their baptism, it must be, either 
that God had previously prepared the hearts of chil- 
dren for the worthy reception of it, or that it would 
take place when they came to years of discretion. 

In the last place, amongst the many authorities 
quoted in favor of this sense, they adduce the tes- 
timony of the twelve Bishops in the Savoy confer- 
ence, who were appointed to meet with an equal 
number of Presbyterian divines, in order to see if 
some changes in the service could not be agreed 
upon, which might reconcile their differences. 

Amongst the objections of the Presbyterian divines 
was this ; that " throughout the several offices (of 
the prayer-book,) the phrase is such as presumes 

8* 



90 APPENDIX. 

all persons within the communion of the Church to 
be regenerated, converted, and in an actual state of 
grace" — particularly did they object to the term 
regenerated by God's Holy Spirit, being applied 
" to every child in baptism." In reply to this, the 
twelve Bishops say that the Church in her prayers 
uses no more offensive phrase than St. Paul does 
when he wishes to the Corinthians, Galatians, and 
others, calling them in general Churches of God — - 
sanctified in Christ Jesus, by vocation, saints." So 
say they, « Our prayers, and the phrase of them, 
surely supposes no more than that they are saints 
by calling, and sanctified in Christ Jesus, by their 
baptism admitted into Christ's congregation." They 
say both the Apostles and the Church speak thus 
in the judgment of charity concerning all, both the 
evil and the good. 

I think it proper to add, that some of the most 
wise expositors of our formularies, as of the Scrip- 
tures, have found it necessary at times to resort to 
each of these keys for unlocking the meaning of such 
passages in the Bible and prayer-book, although 
they may all have supposed that one or the other was 
chiefly to be used, and may have differed some- 
times as to the passages to which they should be 
applied. 



APPENDIX. 91 

If, therefore, my friend, you prefer this under- 
standing of the passages under consideration, to the 
former, you will find yourself in good company. A 
large number of pious and learned divines of our 
Church, have adopted it as the safest and best. All 
the great doctrines of the Reformation are held in 
connexion with it, and a high degree of holiness 
marks the character of its advocates, who, though 
not undertaking to affirm that the Church has adopt- 
ed the best possible method of declaring the truth 
which she holds, yet say, that it is much easier to 
see the imperfection of this, than to propose a 
better.* 

Yours truly. 



* Amongst those who of late years have espoused it, maybe 
mentioned Mr. Scott, son of the commentator, who distinguish- 
ed himself in his controversy with Bishop Mant, Mr. Gorham 
in his recent controversy with the Bishop of Exeter, Mr. 
McNeile, Bickersteth, Budd, Bridges, and William Goode. 

It is due to truth to state, that if the passages quoted above 
from the twelve Bishops, justify the Church in using language 
which can only be understood as the language of charity, and 
so far sustains the advocates of the second mode of interpreta- 
tion, they also seem to favor the first mode, and to represent re- 
generation, in such like phrases, as being used sometimes in a 
lower sense. 



92 APPENDIX. 



Third Method of Interpretation. 

My dear Friend : 

In this my last letter, I shall lay before you the 
views of a third class of interpreters of the service, 
of which, however, I cannot say that you may 
adopt them with safety, as I believe they have done 
and are doing much evil, and can neither be sus- 
tained by the Bible or prayer-book. This class 
goes beyond both the former in the efficacy they 
ascribe to baptism, and the meaning they attach to 
the words of the service, and are not only very 
positive in their opinions, but very offensive in their 
language towards those who differ from them, de- 
nouncing such as dishonest, and wondering how 
any other sense can be put upon the words than 
their own, extravagant as it is. I can only say if 
theirs be the only sense that is admissible, long 
since would the terms have been modified, or the 
Church have been greatly thinned. If their's be' 
the true sense, and those holding other and very 
opposite views deserve to be excluded from the 
Church and its ministry, as some speak, then ought 
an overwhelming majority of the bishops and clergy 
and lay-members ever since the Reformation to 



APPENDIX. 93 

have been excommunicated as heretical, or dis- 
honest. These persons, though differing among 
themselves on some points, agree in this, that there 
is an inward and spiritual grace invariably atten- 
dant on the administration of baptism with water, 
in the name of the Trinity, called regeneration, — 
and which never does or can go before, or follow 
after baptism, but is effected by God's Spirit in, 
and through baptism. They do make an excep- 
tion as to adults, who come in hypocrisy and un- 
belief, but as to infants, the effects say they are 
uniform and invariable, because there is no opposi- 
tion in their minds to the operation of baptismal 
grace. Some of them only make this regeneration 
to consist of what is called a seed, a principle, or 
power implanted in baptism, and always implanted, 
though it may not always be quickened into life 
and action, or if it is, is nevertheless soon destroyed 
by neglect or evil influences. One of the most pro- 
minent of the modern advocates of this doctrine,* 
affirms that before baptism, man being under the 
influence of a corrupt nature and the evil spirit, 
cannot have any just conception of moral relations, 
but in baptism he is regenerated and the moral 
powers rectified, so that now, by the means of edu- 
cation in the Church, he can become all that is re- 

* Mr. Sewell in his work on Christian Morals. 



94 APPENDIX. 

quired. According to this theory, our natural 
powers and affections, no matter what other advan- 
tages they may possess, cannot understand what is 
right, until they are rectified in baptism. Some 
others consider the regeneration to consist in a kind 
of incarnation into Christ, in much the same way 
as the Romanists maintain that we do by partaking 
of the other sacrament. When it is said that by 
baptism we become members of Christ, they under- 
stand not that we become members of the Church, 
which, in a certain sense, is his body, — his mystical 
body — but of Christ himself; being in Christ, just 
as much as a sound living branch is part of the 
parent stock. Others consider that justification is 
as indissolubly connected with baptism as it is with 
faith, that even an adult, no matter how penitent 
and believing, and holy he has been for years be- 
fore his baptism, is not justified until he has washed 
away his sins in the water of baptism, and that 
every child is completely justified in baptism. Of 
course it is maintained that all children thus recti- 
fied in their moral powers, and having this seed of 
grace in their hearts, thus justified and accepted of 
God, are to be regarded and treated as such, that is, 
as God's children in the highest sense. They must 
by a proper care be thus kept, and not allowed to 
fall from grace. It is affirmed of some that they 



APPENDIX. 95 

have so kept their baptismal grace, so cherished the 
seed within them, and used their rectified moral 
powers as to need no repentance, no other renewal 
of God's grace, although such assurances of repent- 
ance are made for them at baptism. It has been 
even asserted that some have preserved their bap- 
tismal robe so white and spotless, that the angels 
appointed to watch over them, have no cause for 
even a blush on their account before the throne of 
God. In perfect conformity with the above men- 
tioned views, as to the efficacy of baptism for pro- 
ducing that change in our nature, and that re- 
conciliation with God, without which salvation is 
impossible, and as to the necessary union of these 
things with baptism as to time and administration, 
you will also find that there are some who express 
themselves more or less doubtful as to the salvation 
even of infants dying without it, as if God could 
not prepare children for Heaven without the water 
of baptism. I need not say to you, my dear friend, 
how seriously such views must affect our estimate 
of the character of children, and the proper mode 
of dealing with them, — what a change it must make 
in our understanding of the doctrine of justification 
as contained in the Bible, and set forth in our ar- 
ticles ; of repentance and faith as solemnly pro- 
mised at the baptism of every child, and absolutely 



96 APPENDIX. 

required of every candidate for confirmation and 
the Lord's supper, by the Church, and-for Heaven 
itself, by Christ, who keeps the door thereof. It is 
true that the advocates of this doctrine, of the inva- 
riable moral regeneration of every subject of bap- 
tism at the time of its administration, defend them- 
selves from the charge of holding the Romish 
doctrine of what is called the opus operatum, that 
is, the effect being produced by the very rite itself, 
by saying that it is God's Spirit which does it, not 
the water of baptism ; but it is well known that 
only ignorant Romanists maintain that the water 
does it, the more intelligent ascribing it to God's 
Spirit, only affirming that it always does it at the 
time and by the agency of baptism. But is there 
not a serious objection to the belief that God has 
bound himself to produce such a great moral change 
in every child just at one particular time, and by 
the agency of a particular ceremony, when the 
time too is to be just when man chooses to use 
the agency, and when man may perform the act in 
the most careless and irreverent manner, may put it 
off from time to time, from year to year, just to suit 
his convenience, and may then, instead of holy 
vows and promises from godly persons, have the 
most ungodly to take part in it. Is this fulfilling 
the Scripture — " The wind bloweth where it listeth, 



APPENDIX. 97 

and we hear the sound thereof, but know not whence 
it cometh or whither it goeth, and so is every one 
that is born of the spirit." Is this " being born not 
of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God ?" 
Does it not seem rather that the parent may deter- 
mine not only the time when the new birth shall 
take place, by appointing the time of its baptism, 
but whether it shall take place at all during its 
minority, by neglecting its baptism ? Is not this 
too much like being born of the will of man when 
he can thus dictate the time ? As to their mode of 
reasoning, that because God has said w T e must be 
born of water and of the spirit, therefore the two 
must take place at the same time, and in the act of 
baptism, what can be more illogical and contrary 
to the whole analogy of faith ? Why not say that 
because it is declared we must believe and be bap- 
tized ; believe with our hearts and confess with our 
mouths, do, as well as hear, in order to salvation, 
that these things must all take place at one and the 
same moment, when from their very nature there 
must be more or less difference as to time and 
place ? Why should an effect be ascribed to bap- 
tism, though regularly administered and amidst 
faithful prayers, which is not assigned to God's 
own word ? We are said to be born again of God's 
word — sanctified by the truth : — the word is declared 
9 



y» APPENDIX, 

to be the power of God to the salvation of the soul ; 
by the foolishness of preaching God saves those 
that believe ; but how many read it, and hear it 
faithfully preached, and are not born again of it, at 
the time, or ever after ; why ? because it is not 
mixed with faith ; because they are not doers of it ; 
therefore it has no effect and returns unto God void, 
though he sent it forth to produce effect. Some- 
times, indeed, the word of God which is the very 
thing the Scriptures speak of as seed in the hearts 
of man, does lay there for a long time after being 
planted by the hand of the parent, and yet at length 
springs up and bears fruit. 

We must therefore believe that this attempt to 
tie God's blessing, and especially when making it 
such a great and indispensable one, to the moment 
and act of baptism is an interference with his 
sovereignty, which must displease him. He has 
in his great goodness appointed various agencies, 
and will work by them all during the course of our 
lives, when and as he chooses, and yet so as to 
silence any complaint on our part. There is one 
instrument, however, by which we certainly become 
his children in the highest sense, and that is when 
with faith and penitence we embrace his son Jesus 
Christ. Those who in riper years come to bap- 
tism in the service prescribed by our Church, come 



APPENDIX. 99 

thus, " being made the children of God, and of the 
light by faith in Jesus Christ," and therefore if 
they are said to be " bom again and made heirs of 
salvation" in their baptism also, it can only mean, 
that they are thus publicly declared to be so, by 
admission into the Church, by having God's pro- 
mises sealed unto them and their faith, and grace 
confirmed and increased by that ordinance. As to 
children, whatever spiritual influences they may 
receive at an early age, when they shall have ful- 
filled the conditions of their baptism, and shall have 
come to the knowledge and faith of Christ, they 
also shall be God's true children without doubt. 
Justified by faith they- shall have peace with God ; 
having experienced a death unto sin, and a new 
birth unto righteousness, remission of sins by 
spiritual regeneration, and become new creatures in 
Christ, which is evidenced by their walking in new- 
ness of fife. Should they die before they come to 
know* good and ill, and to be accountable for their 
choice, w r e may confidently intrust their souls unto 
God as unto a faithful Creator, and we need not be 
afraid of letting them fall into the hands of that 
Saviour who died for them, and who while on earth 
showed such tender love to little children. 



100 APPENDIX. 



X T E. 



It has been supposed by some that the Church of England 
in one of her rubrics, countenances some doubt as to the sal- 
vation of unbaptized infants, by expressing her conviction that 
those who are baptized and die before the commission of actual 
sin, will certainly be saved. It may be wise to trace this 
rubric to its source. In the preface to the Confirmation 
service put forth in the reign of king Edward, 1549, it is for- 
bidden that any should be confirmed but those who were in- 
structed in the Church Catechism attached to it, and which is 
the same we now use, except the questions on the sacraments, 
which were added in the reign of James the First. The 
candidates were to be " of perfect age" " agreeably with the 
usage of the Church in times past" — that is, before the Romish 
corruption. The above, and indeed the whole Preface was 
aimed at the doctrine and practice of the Romish Church, as 
to confirmation, which was administered to infants at the time 
of their baptism, and declared to be essential to the efficacy and 
completeness of baptism, — that without it the Spirit was not 
given, and the child must suffer, perhaps might be lost. The 
Reformers protested against this doctrine, and maintained that, 
from the first, confirmation was a personal confession " with 
one's own mouth and consent," of what was vowed in bap- 
tism, and was not necessary to the salvation of a child dying 
in infancy. The Preface concludes thus, "And that no man 
shall think that any detriment shall come to children from 
deferring of their confirmation, he shall know for truth, that 
it is certain by God's word, that children being baptized (if 
they depart out of this life in their infancy,) are undoubtedly 
saved." Here we have the true and express design of the 
rubric. The positive affirmation of the undoubted salvation 
of baptized children was not intended to cast doubt on the sal- 
vation of such as died unbaptized, but was manifestly levelled 
against the corrupt Romish doctrine, that without their infant 
confirmation and its attendant ceremonies, the child was only 



APPENDIX. 101 

half baptized, and might be lost. The Church bids parents 
and others have no fear of this, even if the child died without 
their unwarranted addition to baptism. One or two expres- 
sions in the articles and homilies may receive some light from 
this passage. 

The rubric of the later English Prayer-book affirming the sal- 
vation of all baptized children dying in infancy, has been left 
out of the American Prayer-book. Bishop White says, " It 
has been left out, perhaps unnecessarily, lest it should seem 
impliedly to countenance the notion that unbaptized infants are 
not saved." Bishop White believed that as it stood in the 
English Prayer-book it was designed to imply no such doubt. 
He himself strongly protests against the entertainment of any 
such doubt See page 17 of his Lectures on the Church 
Catechism. 



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